by Manidoo | Last Updated: September 2, 2022Requirements
Gear: Passport, money to get to Canada
Quest Log: Going to Canada
Originally Written: October 2016
Revised: September 2022
October 21st, 2016 – Today was the first day of our trip. Our destination was Jasper, Canada. Our total drive time would be 40 hours. The first day of our trip would involve doing a chunk of that drive time.
After the eight-hour drive, we found ourselves hitting the city of Jamestown, North Dakota. We took a detour through the city to see their famous Buffalo Statue; a statue so big my 5’11’ self could barely reach it(pic for reference). After snapping a few pics we decided to camp out here for the night.
Unsurprising, most of the campsites were closed for the season. We luckily were located near an open campground just a short drive away from the Buffalo. As we checked in the woman at the desk looked at us like we were crazy for camping in a tent this late in the season. Fortunately for us, we were triple-layered, so we didn’t worry about freezing too much.
October 22nd, 2016 – After several hours of driving, we made it to the Canadian border up in Portal, North Dakota. Once we arrived at the border we found ourselves detained by the Canadian border patrol. After asking us several questions, and searching our car, they told us that we had some pocket knives that cannot be carried through the border. They gave us two options: Leave the knives with them or mail them back home.
We ended up choosing the latter. We drove less than 2 minutes on Canadian grounds so we can loop back to the US border. After explaining to the US patrol about our situation we found ourselves detained again for 2 hours. We were finally released after 5 hours of waiting at the border patrol. By this point it was dark, so we had to search for a place to sleep. We drove over to Minot where we planned on picking up some postage stamps in the morning.
Although we spent 2 minutes on Canadian soil neither of us could say this can be crossed off our Impossible Lists. We will be doing that tomorrow once we officially cross the border.
October 23rd, 2016 – The detainment put us pretty behind our traveling schedule so for the majority of the day we spent our time driving. After driving for nearly 12 hours we arrived at Medicine Hat where we planned to stay the night. We were not able to find much for camping in this city. We decided to stay at a hotel for the night in order to avoid a repeat of nighttime camping and lack of food like our Wisconsin trip.
It ended up being a good choice. We had our fill of poutine and a nice warm rest for the night.
October 24th, 2016 – After a nice rest and filling breakfast my fiance and I headed to our first destination in Canada, Dinosaur Provincial Park. We arrived slightly after 12 PM and took notice of how vacant the park was. We took a picture of the vast badlands before we went downhill to the park’s campground.
We met up with the park staff to inquire about the campground’s facilities. We were informed that they will need to contact the park’s officials to bring down Firewood since they disabled the Firewood dispenser for the year. We set up our tent before shortly being greeted by two of the park’s staff who gave us several bundles of firewood free of charge. It was still early in the evening so we settled to do hiking before eating dinner.
Upon our return, we found that the staff gave us several more bundles of firewood during our absence. Needless to say, we had a nice long fire and a hot dinner. We heard coyotes in the distance so we quickly washed our dishes after eating and then turned in for the night.
October 25th, 2016 – After a chilling night, my fiance and I awoke to find frost on our dampened tent. The day was extremely foggy making it hard to see anything beyond 100 feet. We slowly took down our tent, letting it dry as we ate breakfast then left off to visit the Dinosaur Provincial Park’s exhibit.
After exploring the exhibit, and warming up from our cold night’s rest, we bought some souvenirs from home and left off to our second destination Jasper. The trip from the park to Jasper was a long one, taking us until nightfall to arrive in the city.
October 26th, 2016 – If there is any city that will remain the most memorable part of our trip I think it would be Jasper. This place is an extremely peaceful town surrounded by the wonders of nature. We talked with the locals about the attractions near the city and got quite the list of adventures.
My fiance and I grabbed a quick bite to eat before doing some souvenir shopping. After we got our items collected we headed towards one of the recommended attractions, Maligne Canyon. While we would have loved to make the 5-mile trek through the canyon’s trail we found that we were coming short on time before dusk neared. We ended up crossing 3/4 of the trail before heading back.
We then left off to visit the Skytram in hopes to view the beautiful mountains surrounding the city. Unfortunately, we found out that this would have cost us $80 to do, which neither of us felt was worth it. Instead, we went over to our campsite to cook ourselves a nice dinner. Ended up being the smart choice, as the wood was wet, and took quite a while to get the fire started.
October 27th, 2016 – We awoke hours before sunrise, eager to hit the road. After spending several chilling nights camping in Canada we were anxious to check out our next destination, Radium Hot Springs.
The drive from Jasper to Radium would be a long one, requiring us to drive across a mountain along the way. As we got higher up the mountain it started to snow heavily. I was used to Minnesota’s winter roads but driving down this was a whole other story. Despite my death grip on the wheel it was difficult to maintain control coming down from the mountain.
After an hour of driving through the mountain, the roads started to elevate. A sense of relief went through the two of us and I loosed my grip. Then, in what felt like a flash, I lost control of the car and spun out. I slammed on the brakes to try to control the car before coming to a stop. We got out to assess the situation and we found our car was hanging off the road, just near the tipping point from crashing into the water below.
It was impossible for us to get behind the car to push it out. Luckily for us, a pick-up truck driver heading towards Jasper came through just minutes afterward. The driver, Sean, used a tow rope in the back of his truck to pull us out. We got out and were back on the road just a short while later.
We thanked Sean and then continued on our journey. The snow-covered roads lasted a few more hours before we made it to the city of Banff. We checked our car for damages, fueled up, then left for the Hot Springs an hour southward.
We arrived at the Hot Springs by mid-afternoon. We went to go change into our swim gear before heading to the Springs. Instantaneously the long car trips, the cold nights, and aching muscles felt worth it just to be submerged in these hot springs. We spent the next two hours relaxing in the Hot Spring while reflecting on our travels. We did a lot of new things during this trip, but the adventure was only half over.
It’s exciting to see what awaits us down the road.
October 28th, 2016 – We had a long road ahead of us, 12 hours to be exact. If we wanted to make it to every pit stop in our trip it meant that today we will need to spend a day just driving.
That’s one thing most prevalent about Canada. It has many thrilling locations, but they are spaced out hours apart from one another. As we drove off we stopped at a Tim Hortons. I’ve never seen one in Minnesota but you can find them at every town corner here in Canada. After eating at one for lunch, I can see why they’re so loved up North.
We got to Winnipeg late into the night. We ate at Tim Hortons for the third time that day before turning in.
October 29th, 2016 – It was a fun ride, but now it’s time for us to head back to the States. We stopped along the way to grab the last of the souvenirs on our list before passing through the border.
My fiance wanted to make a detour to Ely, Minnesota before leaving back home. Many of the campsites around Ely were closed for the season so we opted to stay in a nice motel for the night. We arrived in the later afternoon which gave us plenty of time to explore the city. We stopped by this awesome restaurant called Gators Grilled Cheese for a fill of sandwiches and Mac & Cheese
We still had time to kill so we traveled around the city a bit more to pick up the makings for Bourbon hot chocolate and some late-night Geocaching. I’ve found my first Geocache trackable right next to our motel. Visiting the cozy small of Ely was definitely a nice way to end our 10-day trip.
Reward
XP Earned: 20 XP