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| Storm Trooper at Crowfoot Glacier |
USA–Canada Overland Part 2 ended in Browning, Montana, with Storm Trooper pointed toward Chief Mountain. We crossed into Alberta and spent the center of this final installment in Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, on the Icefields Parkway, at Athabasca Glacier and in Jasper before turning east for the Canadian prairie and the return to Maryland.
The series began with Part 1 from Maryland to South Dakota and crossed the Badlands, Yellowstone and Glacier in Part 2. Our original route map records the full 5,700-mile loop, with the Canadian Rockies as the main route rather than a prelude to the drive home.
USA–Canada Overland Part 3 — Post Summary
Part 3 puts the Canadian leg at the center: Chief Mountain, Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway, Athabasca Glacier, Jasper and Lake Minnewanka, followed by the eastbound prairie crossing and the final return to Maryland.
| What's Covered | |
| 1 | Chief Mountain Border to Canmore — enter Alberta and reach the first Canadian overnight stop |
| 2 | Vermilion Lakes and Canmore Railway — evening reflections and the working Bow Valley rail corridor |
| 3 | Bow River to Lake Louise — highway viewpoints, Lake Louise and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise |
| 4 | Icefields Parkway to Columbia Icefield — Bow Lake, Crowfoot Glacier and Saskatchewan River Crossing |
| 5 | Athabasca Glacier by Ice Explorer — Columbia Icefield arrival and the managed glacier excursion |
| 6 | Sunwapta Valley, Roadside Bears and Jasper — waterfalls, roadside wildlife and the evening arrival |
| 7 | Jasper Back to Canmore — the return through the mountain corridor after dark |
| 8 | Banff and Bow River Horseback Ride — downtown Banff and the riverside trail |
| 9 | Banff Gondola and Sky Bistro — Sulphur Mountain views and lunch above the Bow Valley |
| 10 | Lake Minnewanka Cruise — mountain shorelines, the submerged townsite and the evening boat ride |
| 11 | Canmore to North Portal — the eastbound run through Edmonton, Saskatoon and the Canadian prairie |
| 12 | North Dakota to Germantown — border crossing, Midwest highways and the final return home |
From Browning, Storm Trooper crossed into Alberta at Chief Mountain and followed the route through Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway, Athabasca Glacier and Jasper. After returning to Canmore for Banff and Lake Minnewanka, we turned east across Alberta and Saskatchewan, re-entered the United States at North Portal, crossed North Dakota and the Midwest, and reached Germantown at the end.
Journey: USA–Canada Overland, Part 3
Date: July 2018
Start: Browning, Montana
Canadian route: Chief Mountain, Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, Icefields Parkway, Athabasca Glacier, Jasper and Lake Minnewanka
Return: Edmonton, Saskatoon, North Portal, North Dakota and the Midwest
Finish: Germantown, Maryland
Full round trip: approximately 5,700 miles
Homeward drive: approximately 2,400 miles in three days
Vehicle: Storm Trooper, first-generation Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Route at a Glance
- Cross from Browning into Alberta at Chief Mountain and continue to Canmore
- Photograph the evening light at Vermilion Lakes
- Follow the Canadian Pacific line and Bow River toward Lake Louise
- Drive the Icefields Parkway past Bow Lake and Saskatchewan River Crossing
- Ride an Ice Explorer onto Athabasca Glacier
- Continue through the Sunwapta Valley to Jasper
- Return from Jasper to Canmore
- Visit Banff and ride beside the Bow River
- Take the Banff Gondola to Sulphur Mountain
- Cruise Lake Minnewanka
- Drive east through Edmonton and Saskatoon to North Portal
- Cross North Dakota and the Midwest before returning to Germantown
Chief Mountain Border to Canmore
Part 2 ended in Browning, with Storm Trooper pointed toward the Canadian border. We followed the road north through Blackfeet country and reached the seasonal Chief Mountain crossing, where the mountains make the boundary feel less like a line on a map and more like a checkpoint installed in the middle of a geology lesson.
The crossing was open for our July 2018 drive, and the formalities were brief. Current operating dates and hours vary, so this is one border where a traveler should check both countries’ official notices rather than arrive after dinner and negotiate with a locked gate.
From the border, Alberta Highway 6 carried us through Waterton country before we worked north toward the Trans-Canada Highway. The road moved from open foothills into tighter mountain valleys, with Storm Trooper using fuel at the calm, measured rate of a small municipal department.
Canmore gave us the first overnight stop in Canada. The town grew around the railway and coal mining, then survived the closure of its last mine by becoming a base for people who prefer mountains with coffee, trails and functioning plumbing. From Canmore, we drove back toward Banff for evening light at Vermilion Lakes.
Vermilion Lakes and Canmore Railway
We reached Vermilion Lakes near Banff in the evening. The water and wetlands sit close to the Trans-Canada Highway, yet the road noise softened as the light dropped and Mount Rundle settled into the reflection.
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| Vermilion Lakes at sunset |
The sunset did what mountain sunsets do when they know cameras are waiting: it delayed, improved and then vanished with no regard for dinner. We stayed until the color drained from the water and drove back to Canmore in the long summer twilight.
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| Alberta mountain highway rest area |
The next morning began beside the railway that helped create Canmore. A rest-area stop placed one of us in front of the highway, parked trucks and the mountains; the scene was less polished than Vermilion Lakes and more faithful to a working overland route.
Canadian Pacific freight trains still run through the Bow Valley, linking the town’s mining origins with the national rail corridor. We watched the line before returning to Storm Trooper, because a freight train is one of the few machines capable of making a Raptor look economical.
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| Canadian Pacific freight train near Canmore |
The train moved through town with the mountains behind it, carrying the route in the opposite direction from ours. Canmore’s old industrial spine remains visible in the tracks, sidings and stone buildings even as hotels and restaurants have replaced much of the coal economy.
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| Freight railcars near Canmore |
Long strings of freight cars kept arriving. The repetition suited the railway better than it suits prose, so we took the photographs and let the locomotives handle the rest. Steel wheels and couplers supplied their own soundtrack beside the road. After the railway stop, we left Canmore and turned west along the Bow River.
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| Grain hopper cars near Canmore |
Bow River to Lake Louise
The Trans-Canada Highway followed the Bow River west. The river appeared beside the road, disappeared behind trees and returned at pullouts, giving us a turquoise guide that required no subscription and issued no recalculating warnings.
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| Bow River viewpoint in Alberta |
At the first overlook, the river ran below forested slopes and pale rock. Glacial sediment suspended in the water contributes to its color, though the roadside view needed no chemistry lesson to hold our attention.
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| Storm Trooper at a Bow River rest area |
Storm Trooper occupied most of the rest area in the manner expected of a first-generation Raptor. The Bow River and mountains handled the remaining space without complaint. We used the stop for photographs and a final check before continuing west.
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| Bow River overlook in Alberta |
Lake Louise was already busy when we arrived. Canoes moved across the water beneath Victoria Glacier, while the shoreline gathered visitors who had reached the same conclusion from several continents at once.
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| Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier |
The lake’s blue-green color comes from fine mineral sediment carried by glacial meltwater. Up close, the water looked less like a brochure and more like a cold mountain lake with a very competent publicity department.
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| Canoes on Lake Louise |
We walked the lakeshore, then returned to the hotel side of the lake. Access arrangements have changed since 2018, so present-day visitors should use current Parks Canada parking and shuttle guidance rather than our old arrival time as a plan.
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| Storm Trooper at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise |
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise filled the developed end of the shore. Storm Trooper parked outside with the discreet restraint of a wide-body truck beside a grand railway hotel. From the hotel, the route turned north toward the Icefields Parkway.
Icefields Parkway to Columbia Icefield
North of Lake Louise, Highway 93 became the Icefields Parkway. The road runs about 232 kilometers to Jasper, with long service gaps and one seasonal fuel stop at Saskatchewan River Crossing. We had supplies, a full tank and enough photographs ahead to test the patience of any future editor.
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| Storm Trooper and our group at Bow Lake |
Bow Lake was our first long stop. Storm Trooper and our group stood beside clear water, scree slopes and the ice-fed headwaters of the Bow River. The lake made a natural pause before the road climbed again.
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| Crowfoot Glacier from the Icefields Parkway |
Crowfoot Glacier clung to the mountainside above the road. Its name came from the lobed shape that once resembled a crow’s foot, although retreat has made the old comparison harder to see.
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| Bow Lake panorama |
At Bow Lake, the road and shoreline shared the same broad mountain basin. Vehicles and visitors along the edge provided scale, a useful service when the peaks refused to fit inside one frame.
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| Bow Lake shoreline |
The water near shore was clear enough to show stones below the surface. It was also cold enough that we treated swimming as a theoretical activity best left to more committed researchers.
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| Saskatchewan River Crossing overlook |
Saskatchewan River Crossing marked the meeting of major valleys and the parkway’s main service point. From the overlook, braided channels spread across the valley floor while the road prepared for the steeper climb ahead.
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| Icefields Parkway traffic queue |
Traffic stopped near the mountain curves beyond the crossing. The delay gave us time to look back along the road, which was a more useful response than asking the mountains to move the queue.
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| Stopped traffic on the Icefields Parkway |
The parkway gained elevation through broad turns, including the sweep around Big Bend. The road’s engineering is easiest to appreciate from a stopped vehicle, especially when every moving one is already occupied with brakes, mirrors and the drop beyond the barrier. Beyond the bend, the Columbia Icefield began to dominate the northern horizon.
Athabasca Glacier by Ice Explorer
The Columbia Icefield appeared beyond the road as a high mass of snow and ice feeding several glaciers. It sits along the Continental Divide, where meltwater leaves the icefield through river systems flowing toward different parts of the continent.
The name can be confusing because another Columbia Glacier reaches tidewater in Alaska. We had seen that coastal setting during our earlier Alaska journey; this one remained high in the Canadian Rockies, far from calving into the sea.
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| Our group at Athabasca Glacier |
At the Columbia Icefield area, Athabasca Glacier filled the valley behind us. The exposed rock and old ice margins made its retreat visible before any sign explained it. The scale became clearer only when other visitors crossed the foreground.
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| Two of us at Athabasca Glacier |
Two of us stood with the glacier while cloud and sunlight moved across the ice. The camera flattened the distance, but the walk from the parking area did not. Wind off the ice kept everyone moving between photographs.
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| Columbia Icefield group photograph |
Our group stopped beside the Columbia Icefield sign before the excursion. It was the sensible group photograph, taken while everyone was still clean, warm and pretending not to need another layer.
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| Storm Trooper at Columbia Icefield |
Storm Trooper waited in the parking area while we transferred to the commercial glacier operation. The vehicle had crossed mountain roads, but the lateral moraine belonged to machinery with a far stranger set of tires.
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| Athabasca Glacier from the visitor area |
Our 2018 visit used an Ice Explorer, not a crampon hike. The large all-terrain vehicle carried us across the moraine and onto a managed stopping area on Athabasca Glacier, where passengers could step onto the ice.
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| Glacier ice at Columbia Icefield |
Blue ice and darker debris appeared in the broken surface. Dense glacier ice absorbs more red wavelengths, leaving the deeper blue tones that cameras tend to intensify and captions tend to overexplain.
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| Columbia Icefield mountain view |
The surface rose and folded around melt channels and ridges. We stayed inside the designated area because glaciers contain crevasses, moving water and very little sympathy for improvised shortcuts. The marked route made that decision pleasantly easy.
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| Snow and ice at Columbia Icefield |
Snow and old ice formed a bright layer beneath the surrounding peaks. Wind crossed the open surface without meeting anything substantial until it reached us. Gloves stopped feeling optional almost immediately.
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| Athabasca Glacier from the Icefields Parkway |
From the road, Athabasca Glacier could be seen flowing down from the Columbia Icefield. Historical markers near the visitor area show how far the terminus has withdrawn, turning climate records into a walk across exposed ground. After the glacier stop, we returned to Storm Trooper and continued north into the Sunwapta Valley.
Sunwapta Valley, Roadside Bears and Jasper
The road entered Jasper National Park through the Sunwapta Valley. River channels and steep mountain walls replaced the open icefield area, with Jasper still several stops ahead.
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| Icefields Parkway in Sunwapta Valley |
The parkway ran through the valley beside the Sunwapta River. Water, gravel bars and forest occupied most of the view; the road took the narrow portion engineers had managed to negotiate.
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| Mountain view on the Icefields Parkway |
Each bend changed the arrangement of river and peaks. The Canadian Rockies remained remarkably efficient at producing new views from the same basic ingredients. We stopped often enough that progress became a negotiable concept.
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| Snow-covered peak on the Icefields Parkway |
Snow remained on distant summits even in July. The pale ridge gave us another reason to stop, although by then the camera had begun filing formal objections. No two pullouts produced quite the same road.
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| Tangle Creek Falls |
Tangle Creek Falls dropped beside the highway in several tiers. We viewed it from the roadside; this was not a waterfall we walked behind, despite what an earlier draft claimed with considerable confidence.
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| Stutfield Glacier panorama |
Stutfield Glacier hung high above the Sunwapta Valley. From the parkway, the ice appeared to spill over the cliff bands without reaching the road below. Its high position kept the ice well beyond casual access.
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| Stutfield Glacier detail |
A closer view showed the glacier divided by rock ribs and shadow. The distance made precise ice measurements impossible, which left us free to look instead of pretending the camera was a survey instrument.
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| Stutfield Glacier from the parkway |
The final view of Stutfield Glacier closed the icefield sequence. The route then turned from distant ice to wildlife close enough to stop traffic. The camera had barely returned to the truck when vehicles slowed again.
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| Black bear in Jasper National Park |
The first black bear fed in roadside vegetation. Its coat appeared cinnamon-brown, a color variation that does not change the species and does not grant photographers permission to approach. We watched through the windows and kept the doors closed.
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| Roadside black bear on the Icefields Parkway |
Another black bear worked along the edge of the road while vehicles slowed. We stayed inside Storm Trooper and gave it room, which was safer for the bear, safer for us and much easier on the paperwork.
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| Black bear near stopped vehicles |
A third bear appeared near stopped traffic farther north. Roadside sightings were memorable, but they also showed how quickly a feeding animal can become surrounded by people and vehicles.
We reached Jasper in the evening, ate, walked briefly through town and then faced the return drive to Canmore. The Canadian Rockies had supplied a full day; Storm Trooper supplied the headlights.
Jasper Back to Canmore
The drive south retraced the Icefields Parkway after dark. Familiar pullouts disappeared into the headlights, and the grand daytime road became a narrow ribbon between forest and rock.
We reached Canmore late and ended the day on the balcony. After glaciers, bears and several hundred mountain curves, the town lights represented civilization in its most persuasive form: a bed nearby.
Banff and Bow River Horseback Ride
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| Banff Avenue |
After breakfast, we returned to Banff. Banff Avenue aimed straight toward the mountains, with shops and older buildings turning the town into an urban pause inside the national park. The morning crowds were already building along the sidewalks.
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| Downtown Banff storefronts |
We walked the downtown streets before trading pavement for a horseback ride. Banff’s resident rules require most people living in the town to demonstrate a need to reside, a practical attempt to keep a national-park community from becoming a collection of second homes.
-ANIMATION.jpg "Horseback ride near the Bow River")
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| Horseback ride near the Bow River |
Our group mounted at the Banff trail stable and followed the guides toward the Bow River. The horses knew the route, the pace and which riders were likely to confuse steering with polite suggestion.
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| Rider beside the Bow River |
The trail reached the river, where a rider passed through the frame beneath the mountain slopes. The slow pace gave us time to watch the water rather than collect it through a windshield.
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| Bow River from horseback |
The Bow River carried fine glacial sediment through the valley. From horseback, its bends and gravel bars appeared gradually, without the quick arrival and departure of a roadside pullout. At that pace, small changes in the bank became part of the route.
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| Bow River through the trees |
Trees narrowed the view as the trail followed the bank. The horses kept their own spacing, which was more orderly than most parking lots we had used that week. Branches opened and closed the view with each turn.
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| Bow River and mountain during the ride |
The river, forest and mountain ridges stayed with us through the ride. Nothing required a speedometer, and no one asked the horse to calculate fuel economy. The horses preferred the trail’s steady rhythm to any mechanical comparison.
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| Bow River horseback trail |
The final stretch remained close to the Bow River before turning back toward the stable. We dismounted with the careful movements of people whose legs had developed separate opinions. Back in town, the next climb required a cable rather than a saddle.
Banff Gondola and Sky Bistro
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| Banff and Bow Valley from Sulphur Mountain |
The Banff Gondola carried us up Sulphur Mountain, where Banff and the Bow Valley shrank into a map below. The original gondola was built in 1958 and 1959, long before restaurants at altitude became a standard method of testing both appetite and credit limits.
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| Banff Gondola cabin |
The cabin climbed above the trees toward the summit complex. This was the cable-car kind of gondola, not the Venice kind, although both involve queues and a firm belief that the view will justify the price.
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| Sky Bistro dining room |
Sky Bistro placed lunch beside large windows overlooking the mountains. The dining room was the visible subject of the photograph; no entrance, ticket counter or unsupported renovation figure was needed.
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| Sulphur Mountain summit view |
From the summit windows, gondola cabins moved against forest and rock. We finished lunch, took the last photographs and descended toward Lake Minnewanka, where the day’s second ride would replace cables with a boat.
The transition from Sulphur Mountain to the lake took only a short drive, but it changed the scale again. The gondola had shown us the Bow Valley from above; the cruise would place us at water level with the surrounding peaks rising from the shore.
Lake Minnewanka Cruise
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| Lake Minnewanka from the cruise boat |
Lake Minnewanka stretched east from the dock beneath long mountain ridges. We boarded an evening cruise and watched the wake separate the reflections behind the boat. The boat gave the long basin a scale the shoreline had hidden.
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| Lake Minnewanka cruise ticket counter |
Our group collected tickets inside the cruise facility before boarding. The counter photograph recorded the practical stage of the outing, an important reminder that even mountain lakes require paperwork.
Lake Minnewanka has been dammed in three major stages. The 1941 dam raised the water enough to submerge Minnewanka Landing, leaving building remains and earlier shorelines below the modern lake.
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| Lake Minnewanka mountain shoreline |
From the boat, forested slopes met the water with little development in view. The lake’s name comes through Indigenous languages and is commonly rendered as Water of the Spirits; we kept that documented meaning without adding invented supernatural encounters.
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| Cruise boat on Lake Minnewanka |
Another cruise boat crossed beneath the peaks. Its size provided scale for the lake, which had been difficult to judge from the dock. Its wake spread outward long after the hull had passed.
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| Lake Minnewanka dock |
One of us stood on the dock after the cruise. The photograph caught a quiet pause rather than a claimed golden-hour measurement or a precise water temperature. The dock was also a welcome place to straighten legs after the boat.
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| Boat wake on Lake Minnewanka |
The boat’s wake spread across the lake while the valley narrowed ahead. Wildlife corridors and protected habitat surround the lake, but no animal was visible in this frame, so the caption stays with the water.
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| Photographing from the Lake Minnewanka cruise |
One of us photographed the shore from the moving boat. The scene needed no invented list of species; the camera, lake and mountains were all plainly present. The moving deck required more balance than the photograph suggests.
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| Lake Minnewanka valley from the boat |
The final view followed the wake toward the valley. Evening light remained on the slopes as we returned to the dock and drove back to Canmore for our last Canadian night.
Canmore to North Portal
Storm Trooper pointed east the next morning. We passed through Calgary’s outskirts, continued north toward Edmonton, then turned across the prairie toward Saskatoon.
The road after the Rockies felt broad and level. Grain fields, service towns and long horizons replaced glaciers, while the fuel stops continued with reassuring regularity.
Edmonton and Saskatoon were route markers rather than sightseeing stops. We passed through, ate when necessary and kept moving because the homeward plan allowed three days for roughly 2,400 miles.
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| Portal border crossing queue |
At North Portal, vehicles queued for the United States border. The crossing returned us to North Dakota and ended the Canadian portion of the loop. The line moved steadily, which was all we required after the prairie crossing.
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| Storm Trooper at Gastrak in Portal |
Our first U.S. fuel stop was Gastrak in Portal. Storm Trooper took a full tank, and the receipt confirmed that international diplomacy can be measured in gallons when a Raptor is involved. With the border and fuel stop behind us, North Dakota opened into farm country.
North Dakota to Germantown
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| Hurdsfield grain elevator |
A grain elevator at Hurdsfield stood above the surrounding fields. The photograph marked the prairie economy without needing an exact construction year, storage capacity or crop percentage that the building itself could not verify.
We continued through Fargo and stopped at India Palace. The meal broke the highway rhythm and gave us a table that did not move, vibrate or contain a cup holder.
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| India Palace in Fargo |
From Fargo, I-94 carried us toward Minneapolis and the upper Midwest. We kept the cities in the route narrative only where they affected the drive; their theater counts, bridge rankings and civic slogans remained safely outside the truck.
Chicago traffic replaced prairie distance with lanes, ramps and collective negotiation. We passed the city and continued east through Indiana.
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| Texas Roadhouse in Elkhart |
Texas Roadhouse in Elkhart supplied dinner before the final long push. Elkhart’s RV industry was visible around the region, but after several thousand miles we were more interested in food than manufacturing statistics.
The Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpikes carried us through the night and into the Appalachians. Tunnels, grades and service plazas broke the distance into manageable pieces while Storm Trooper kept moving east.
I-270 brought us back toward Germantown. The familiar exit arrived after enough highway time for every dashboard sound to acquire a name and a personality.
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| Home in Germantown after the road trip |
We pulled into the driveway with about 5,700 miles added during the full round trip. Storm Trooper was dusty, the bags were untidy and home had acquired the rare appeal of a destination with no check-in desk.
This July 2018 loop was Storm Trooper’s longest cross-border run before Shehzadi took over our later overland work. The Raptor carried us from Maryland to the Canadian Rockies and back, giving every later long-distance drive a rather thirsty benchmark.
Next Stop: Iceland
After Storm Trooper’s North American loop, our next road trip traded the Raptor for a Ford Fiesta in Iceland. The journey begins at Keflavík and Reykjavík before the Golden Circle, South Coast and Route 1.
Continue to Iceland 2019: Reykjavík, the Golden Circle and the Ring Road.
