Copied my notes from my itinerary
Friday August 5th – Drove from SLC to Missoula, Montana. Reservations at Double Tree with Shawn. Its an hour and a half drive to Lookout pass in the morning and we should be there by 7:00 ish. Didn’t know this when we went but there is a time change when you go over to Lookout Pass, they are an hour earlier. Glad we did start the ride early though.
Saturday August 6th – Bikes Reserved. Place opens at 8 a.m. -want to be there by 7:00/7:15 (remember time change)– drive to Lookout Pass to check in, then drive to trailhead, the bikes are already at the start of the trailhead. Plan on 3 -4 hours with shuttle time. Shuttle back up start at 11 a.m. This was very cool, we followed an old train route through long tunnels and over trellises. Even though we rode fairly fast we still didn’t get back to the car till about noon. We were all muddy because in the tunnels they leak water and your bike hits the puddles and splashed up. We did drive the 7 hours to Lake Louise but if we did it again we would only drive the 1.5 hours to Coeur de lane and stay there. We ended up eating lunch in Coeur De Lane at a Greek place in the center of town. It was a very cool town and we wish we would have had more time there. We also stopped by Cocolalla Lake by Sandpoint to say hi the James family and check out their property. All of that was fun but we were rushed because we still had a big drive to Lake Louise. We ended up pulling into Lake Louise at about 10:30 p.m.
Family picture during the ride!
Sunday August 7th – Since we had such a late night we did sleep in a bit and then we got up to eat a good breakfast (the night before we just snacked in the car with car snacks for dinner). We ate right next to a youth hostel called Bill Peyton’s Café. In a perfect world we would have woke up early to start hikes because the area gets busy, but it all worked out. We drove over to the Lake Louise area and we were lucky to get parking. We walked up to the Lake and found a bench for grammy to sit at. The 5 of us did the Plain of Six Glaciers hike up to a tea house. It was 3.6 up and it was a pretty good climb up. If it was just Shawn and I we would have looped it and hit the other tea house, but it was a good enough hike for the kids. We got tea, hot chocolate, scones, and chili at the Tea House. Because of the burn ordinance we had to pack our garbage out. Lake Louise is so pretty. We went home and the kids swam. We had dinner reservations at The Station, an old train station converted to a restaurant. It was good and fun. Afterwards we drove up to Lake Moraine. This was also a spectacular lake, especially if you hiked the Rock Pile to get high to look over the lake. When we got home Shawn, Lexi, and Alegra rented bikes from the hotel and rode around a bit. In a perfect world could have had another day in this area to hike.
Monday August 8th – we ate cereal in the room and then hit the road to drive towards Banff. On the way we stopped at Johnston Canyon to walk on a suspension walkway to see a waterfall. This was very cool. We then drove the 30 minutes to Banff. We intended to do the Gondola but it was crazy and we needed a reservation. We ended up going to the center town of Banff and walked around, shopped a bit, and ate yummy burgers at Eddie Burger Bar. We then got tickets to do an hour cruise on Lake Minnewanka – we chose this over the gondola, wish we had a bit more time in Banff, very cool town but lots of tourists. Had a very European feel. We then drove about 10 minutes away to the town of Canmore to check in to our hotel. Shawn went to dinner with an old coworker Vince. The hotel had an indoor pool with a really fun waterslide, so they played for a while. We were all tired and the kids didn’t feel like checking out the town of Canmore so grammy and I just ran out and got Subway sandwiches.
Wednesday August 10th – We slept in a bit while Shawn did a mt. bike ride. We drove the mile into the downtown area of Whitefish and put our name in at a breakfast place called Loula’s. There was an hour wait so we shopped at the stores in the town. We had a yummy breakfast and got some pie to go. We had just enough time to go back to the Airbnb, change, and head back towards West Glacier (about 30 minutes) to river raft. We went with the Glacier Raft Company and shout they were great. It’s a bit of a pain to stay in Whitefish if you are wanting more park time but it was also fun to see that cool town. We had a fun time on the river. We were on the 1:30 float and it lasted till about 4:00. After rafting the kids played a round of mini golf that was right next to the place we checked in to raft. Then our guide told us about a good trail close by to pick Huckleberry’s. We went hunting but didn’t find any. Our guide also told us about a yummy burrito and taco truck right in West Glacier so we stopped there for dinner, the Wandering Gringo, before heading back to Whitefish. We stopped by Whitefish lake before going to our Airbnb and the kids had a blast playing in the lake by the beach. It is a beautiful lake.
Thursday August 11th -– Drive to Swan Valley (8 hours). Stopped in Dillon to eat a late lunch at a Greek place. Once we got into Swan Valley the kids, Shawn, and I went out on the water for a late ski/surf/wakeboard session.
Friday August 12th – Got to the lake at about 11 – all did fun activites behind the boat till about 3 when it clouded up. Then packed up and drove home. Such an awesome trip.
Total mileage for our week long EPIC road trip!!!!
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