Sunday, July 13, 2025 Morse Municipal Campground to International Peace Park Campground (on the Manitoba/North Dakota border), Boissevain, Manitoba

Deb here. We woke up to a bit of rain. Fortunately, the train noise didn’t keep either of us up. I have to say this was one of our least favorite campgrounds ever, so when no one showed up to collect money we didn’t worry about it. We left the campground at 7:15 a.m. and started driving west in search of breakfast. Mission accomplished an hour later in Moose Jaw, where we found Veroba’s Family Restaurant. We knew we were in the right spot as we walked in and there was a huge banner hanging outside reading “voted best breakfast in Moose Jaw”. Turns out the banner was spot on, hot eggs, homefries, sausage and toast served quickly and with a smile. Perfect.

Next order of business was locating the world’s tallest moose. We’re on a roll up here with “world’s largest, tallest, biggest”, etc. We found Mac the Moose next to the visitor’s center and took some pictures. Then it was back on Rt 1 for awhile before we decided to turn off and head toward Rt 13, the Red Coat Highway. We miss the biggest red paper clip though…

So many fields and so much canola once again. There were very few towns along the way, but in Weyburn we stopped at a Walmart to try and pick up our short list of groceries. The store was missing a lot, so not much luck there and we continued on.

Yesterday the friendly tourist rep in Medicine Hat had given us a booklet about Southeastern Saskatchewan. As John was driving I read up on the various towns we’d be passing through and decided we needed to stop in Redvers. Redvers boasts the largest Royal Canadian Mounted Police statue, along with a log cabin visitor center/gift shop/cafe that sells Saskatoon berry pie. The statue was a big incentive to go, but the pie was even more of a deal maker.

We stopped in Redvers, ate delicious pie (Saskatoon berries are somewhat like blueberries but with a nuttier flavor) and talked with Jake, Nath and the twins. As we were doing our family What’s App chat at a picnic table outside a man came along with a whole berry pie who asked if we were heading to the International Peace Gardens today. He (Dave as it later turned out) said it was an amazing place and not to be missed and that if we decided to go there we had to say hi to Vicki.

So after we ended our phone call we looked up the International Peace Gardens and what an amazing project. The idea of a joint US/Canada peace park came up in 1929, and the formal gardens were completed in 1932. The park includes something like 25 acres of gardens, a conservatory featuring cacti and succulents, a game warden museum, cafe, 9/11 memorial and campground. I called the campground number to find out if there was space and I talked to Vicki and told her the whole small world story with Dave, who she of course knew. She set us up with a campsite and we started driving, jumping ahead an hour when we crossed into Manitoba.

By 5:30 we were at the park and campground, and what a place it is! The campground’s actually located on the US side of the park, but no passport needed to camp here. We set up, took a walk around the park and made our dinner. Tomorrow we’ll head into the gardens and museum and then who knows what’s next?

Saturday, July 12, 2025 Prince of Wales Hotel to Morse Municipal Campground, Morse, Saskatchewan

Deb here. I woke up early and went down to the lobby to drink tea and soak in the views one more time. John eventually came down for coffee, and by 8 am or so we were packed up and checked out. There are only 2 roads in Waterton Lakes National Park and we drove the second one this morning. Another beautiful drive, although not as dramatic as the drive yesterday to Cameron Lake. At the end of the road we walked a 20 minute loop up through Red Rock Canyon, a deep waterway with red colored banks.

We then sadly drove out of the park. How lucky we were to have had a chance to be there once again! We followed roads leading us to Rte. 1, the Trans Canada Highway, and by the time we arrived in Medicine Hat we’d reached the intersection. Along the way we passed endless fields of crops, and the bright yellow canola fields were really spectacular. Blue skies, flat lands and miles of not much.

In Medicine Hat we stopped at the visitor center and talked with two women who were super enthusiastic about their province and country. As one of them said to me, “I’m not going to the states because I live in such a cool country.” Right near the visitor center is the “world’s largest teepee”, so of course we had to see it. It’s massive and had been built for the 1988 Calgary Olympics. A local Medicine Hat philanthropist later bought it and donated it to the city of Medicine Hat to encourage tourism. Inside there are big murals telling some of the history of the area and the native peoples.

Back on the road for a couple of hours until we reached Morse. No more canola fields, instead lots of brown wheat fields, massive grain silos and who knows what else. We’re camping at a municipal campground here that’s a stone’s throw from the railroad tracks. We’ll see. We’d only eaten snacks all day, so heated up leftover spaghetti and made a salad for an early dinner. So far no trains, nope, I take that back…

Friday July 11, 2025 Great Falls MT to Prince Of Wales Hotel (Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta)

The hotel was great for a Days Inn. Looks like it must have been renovated. We got a couple of yogurts for breakfast since we were still full from dinner last night at Appleby’s (the great local pizza place had a 25 minute wait).

We stopped for coffee and a chai latte and then filled up with gas ($3.25). We then found Rt 89 and headed north. It’s less than 3 hours to the Canadian border so we are way ahead of schedule. Two years ago it took us two weeks to get to Canada on Rt 191 and this trip we are taking 5-6 days.

Good weather and little traffic which has been the pattern so far this trip (except Salt Lake City, yuck).

Mostly wide open country with lots of wheat fields, really big ones. The last part crossed the Blackfeet Reservation which is nice country but undeveloped (no crops to speak of).

At the last minute we decided to head north west and see if we could get into Glacier National Park. Going to the Sun road was backed up and we later learned they are doing a time of day entry so we then tried to get into Many Glacier Lodge (where we’d stayed many years ago) after turning onto Rt 3.  We got close to Many Glacier but only people with reservations could go on, so we turned around when we saw the shuttle bus and the road turned to dirt.

So skip Glacier, let's go to Waterton Lakes National Park on the Canadian side. Rt 17 is a little side road that enters Glacier NP but only on the corner where there are no attractions. We entered Canada at a tiny border crossing, Chief Mountain, and the border official asked simple questions. mostly about firearms.

Thirty eight years ago we hiked from Glacier to Waterton, a 5 nights hike, and ended at the Prince of Wales hotel. So we decided to see if we could revisit the hotel. To our pleasant surprise, they let us into the park for free, to “promote tourism”, which told us that demand was low, which  turned out to be true. We stopped at the hotel and Deb asked about availability. To her surprise there was one room available on the fifth floor. We called it her birthday present and it actually was not that expensive since a Canadian dollar is currently worth $0.73 USD.

Next we drove out to Cameron Lake and did a 4 km round trip hike down the lake. Then back to investigate the town which turned out to be bigger than we thought. Then back to the Prince of Wales for a late afternoon tea/coffee overlooking the lake from the hotel's great room. Dinner was really good, shepherds pie (with bison), salad and drinks. At 7:00 a young guy gave a half hour talk on the history of the hotel. Then off to the room. We can never guess how our day is going to go but today was great!

Thursday July 10, 2025 Baker’s Hole Campground to Great Falls Montana (hotel!!)

The temperature dropped enough last night that the heater turned on. Thanks again to Mitch for fixing the heater (which I am embarrassed to say had nothing wrong with it other than lack of operator headspace!!)

Today we decided to shoot for Great Falls but if we don’t make it that’s fine.

We arrived at the West Yellowstone park entrance at around 7:30am and there was already a line. The nice park ranger took my “get into the park free” card and was disappointed we were just cutting through the top of the park. After that it was smooth sailing to the Mammoth Hot Springs entrance where Rt 89 continues north. At an intersection early on most folks turned right and went into the park and we turned left and had almost empty roads all the way to Gardiner.

This northwestern part of the park is gorgeous. Green meadows and bogs and green evergreens and crooked 2 lane roads all the way. We stopped at a couple of places to take in the Yellowstone beauty and then left the park in Gardiner. We stopped for coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Yellowstone Perk and chatted up the “J-1” youngsters working there from Slovakia and Thailand. What a great experience this would be at that age. They work for 3 months in the park and then get a month off to travel around the U.S.

The rest of the day was magical variations of landscape everything from wheat fields to the Yellowstone River to luscious green meadows to twisty mountain passes. This Rt 89 did not disappoint.

We got to Great Falls around 5:00 and checked into the hotel and it was a fight to see who got in the shower first.