British Columbia/Alberta, Canada
When deciding where to explore next, we realized we’d be pretty close to Canada. I’ve always wanted to visit Banff, so we thought we’d leave the camper in the U.S. while we took a vacation up that way. We had assumed getting a big camper through customs would be a hassle at the border. After more research and conversations with some other full-timers, we discovered it was really no big deal. In my research, I happened upon a campground only an hour past the border with amazing monthly rates and we figured “why not?” So we booked a spot in Fernie, British Columbia from mid-August to mid-September. We stayed at Fernie RV Resort and couldn’t have been happier with our experience.
Every time we pull up to a campground, there’s always a level of trepidation in whether it’ll be a good campground or not and you can usually tell pretty quickly. When we pulled up to this one, we were speechless! It was set in the most stunning location - the mountain view was incredible! It had large sites, open areas for kids to play, complimentary bikes to borrow, great water pressure (IYKYK), and great staff. In the winter this area is a ski town, but in the warmer months it’s filled with bikes! There were trails directly off our campground that followed the Elk River and also led to the nearby grocery store. We did as many errands on bike as we could. The weather was perfect the entire time, too (besides a few cozy, rainy days).
The big happening, though, was Ike breaking his wrist the first week there. Tom and the boys were playing soccer in the field across from our camper. The boys were goalies and Tom kicked a hard one, which Ike stopped with his palm and it sent his wrist backwards. Oof! Dad felt pretty bad, and we ended up having to take Ike back over the border for care. Americans don’t get free healthcare and they have no billing department to send us a bill for our insurance, so to make everyone’s life easier, we just drove back into Montana. He didn’t have to get a full cast, and managed with just using a wrist splint as a cast for 3 weeks. Thankfully those little kid bones are resilient and Ike was a champ and never once complained about the splint. Though, it did mean he couldn’t ride his bike (which is one of his favorite activities), but we took Silas on rides whenever we could.
We did get to sneak up to Alberta and see Banff, as well. We just left the camper at our site and booked a hotel up there. It was a gorgeous drive and felt like the mountains went on forever! We visited Emerald Lake, Moraine Lake, and Lake Louise. The hotel we were at in Banff gave us tickets for the local buses so we bussed into downtown a few times to eat and enjoy the town - again, a perfect time of year to visit! We also managed to snag shuttle tickets to Moraine and Louise which made that day much easier. It’s hard to even put into words how beautiful and memorable this was - you kinda had to be there, right? So I’ll let the pictures do the talking again. Highly recommend seeing the Canadian Rockies at least once in your life. They are truly a sight to behold. God’s creation is incredible! In general, I also feel like tourist towns are not great for good food, but we actually hit some notable ones, so I’m going to link them: Yama Onigiri, Hankki, The Prow
On week three, a secret we’d been keeping arrived… Grandpa and Grandma came to Fernie to be our campground neighbors for a week! The boys were so shocked and excited to see their South Dakota grandparents and they invited themselves over to their camper every single chance they could! It was the sweetest visit and so fun to enjoy the area with them. They even threw Ike a pre-birthday party before they drove up to visit Banff. We got to enjoy free babysitters - haha - and Tom and I went out for dinner which we appreciated so much. We had meals together and just generally lived life side by side. Seeing some familiar faces did our hearts good. I wouldn’t say we’ve been lonely on the road, but seeing people you love is always a gift.
Our last week was spent biking (Ike got approval from the doc) and celebrating mine and Ike’s birthdays! Our time in Canada was amazing, and we’ll talk about the memories there for years to come… but, we were all ready to go home to America.
