Day 6: Driving through Montana & Alberta
There were 2 primary focuses for Wednesday – first, get the motorhome paperwork done at the border (and I had no idea how long that would take), and meet my daughter and grand-daughters for dinner. Beyond, it was just “see what happens”, as usual.
I was in bed early last night, and by 06:15 was well north of Great Falls on I-15. I passed through a couple of new oil/gas regions, reinforcing my feeling that many of the rigs at the campsite last night had been workers in that industry.
Sunshine on vast wheat fields, and the Rockies in the distance – what a gorgeous scene.
The Marias River Valley south of Shelby.
The number of prisons I saw really surprised me. This is the Crossroads Correctional Facility near Shelby. The only private prison in Montana, it houses 664 men.
There are some intriguing mountains off to the northeast of Shelby.
The little town of Sunburst has a lovely setting just 8 miles from the border.
This is the border crossing at Sweetgrass, Montana / Coutts, Alberta. It’s obviously a very new facility – the old brick building to the right, now boarded up, was a standard Canada Customs structure for a few decades. I had all my paperwork in order, including receipts and a summary sheet for all the purchases I made beyond the motorhome, and the border crossing only took an hour in total – 10 minutes on the American side to ensure that the vehicle was clear and legal, and 50 minutes on the Canadian side for a few forms and payment of $2,700 (5% federal tax on the motorhome).
Welcome to Alberta, at 09:30. I went into Coutts expecting to find a cafe for breakfast, but most businesses are boarded up, and there was nothing.
A few minutes after 10:00, I turned into Stirling for 2 reasons – first, breakfast, and second, I saw a sign for a railway museum. No luck with grub, but a gravel road led north of town past wheat fields…
… to the Galt Historic Railway Park. I eventually found a staff member, who went and found a young woman who would give me a tour for $5. Excellent 🙂
In 1890, Sir Alexander Galt built the narrow gauge Great Falls and Canada Railway from Lethbridge (a city he founded). This station was built straddling the international boundary line, and the design is quite interesting, as it included Customs offices for both countries, and a 2-person jail. It was moved to this location and restored in 2000.
The tour was certainly one of the best $5 I’ve spent in a long time – the presentations in the museum, both physical and verbal, are very well done.
After the formal tour inside the station, I looked around the outside for a while. Included in the collection are several “speeders”, including this very early Fairmont.
My railway detour took over an hour, but by 12:30 I was back on the road to Calgary.
How can that not make you smile at least a little bit? 🙂
Ah yes, the Deerfoot through Calgary 🙁 This turned out to be a nasty 7-vehicle pileup, with a 3-ton truck, a Mustang convertible and a pickup all driven up high onto the concrete median. I texted my daughter several times as our dinner date got later and later.
Dinner was wonderful. Not only my daughter and grand-daughters, but my ex-wife and her husband from Australia as well. I’ll be seeing them all in a couple of weeks in Kelowna when my daughter gets married, but this was a great preview.
The sun made a beautiful exit from the sky as I neared the Rockies west of Cochrane at 7:30.
The new plan was to just camp on the side of the road somewhere for the night, possibly a little way up the Icefields Parkway. This is the Trans Canada Highway east of Canmore
I thought about staying at this spot, but decided to continue on for a while – getting home as quickly as possible was the goal now. This was shot right at 9:00 pm.
The viewpoint at Bow Lake on the Icefields Parkway, would be an awesome place to wake up. At 10:35 pm, I shot a few photos and went to bed.
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