Florida To Banff AB.

[0533]

Hello Jim and Chris,


Colorado Bus Wrote: If you need a spot off of I-25 or I-70, we have 50 amp and water at our house, altho, Bluevost will be here June 22th, and the Neffs just left.

I think you should have enough time to have a new site ready for us, paved, water 50 amp etc. We will give you a heads up so you can have all ready before we arrive. We plan on heading your way on the return flight, will let you know, love to get together, have a few pics of our silver bullet next to your herd of Airstreams




As for South Dakota, all Poggers who went to Spearfish last fall will agree that Elkhorn Ridge RV Park was a great spot and centrally located for touring, Devil's Tower, Custar State Park, and Mount Rushmore, and Deadwood, Leads area.

We thought we might stop in Spearfish while in the area, good idea


West Glacier KOA as bus friiendly for us in 2002. Also, Jellystone RV Park in Missoula was OK for one night.

Will look at this one for sure, there are a few choices in this area.



In Banff, we stayed at Tunnel Mountain Campground above Banff. If has weak power, with water in one area, and drycamping in the rest. Be sure to see Banff Springs hotel, Bow Falls, Mt Norquay gondola ride, and Lake Louise and have lunch at the Chateau, (its cheaper than diinner), and head west on the Trans Canada to see where the Canadian Pacific built two spiral train tunnels. Near there is a dirt road to Takakah Falls flowing off of Daly Glacier. Have fun.


We have a guided tour planned by a silent Pogger who has made himself known to us. If he reads this post hopefully he will make himself known to all of you, great guy, has the bus bug. We are really looking forward to seeing all that there is in the Calgary Banff areas.
__________________
Jim and Chris
3rd bus, 2000 Marathon H3-45-tow LX-470
Coach 0586 EXV

[lloyd&pamela]

We spent almost a month in Alberta last year. Personally, we prefer Jasper over Banff; it's less touched and less commercial than Banff.

If you find more time while you're in the mountains we recommend a visit to the Whistler Village area (hike to Whistler Summit - amazing!) and perhaps a Maligne Lake boat tour to Spirit Island. Lake Louise is also a popular destination - the hike to the tea house is worth the workout. And there's Columbia Icefield, Athabasca Falls, ... Waterton Lakes National Park is one of Lloyd's favourite destinations (I think we had half a dozen posts for that park alone).

You can check out our many Alberta-related travel blog posts. Start here:

http://prevost.wordpress.com/2008/08...national-park/

Then keep clicking the right arrow (below the bus pic on top and to the left of Subscribe) until you get to "Wheeze and Sore Knees at Lake Louise" because we have A LOT of posts for Alberta in August 2008 with photos (blog quality), info and a generous amount of useful and useless commentary.

Cheers!

Pamela & Lloyd

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Hey Pam & Lloyd, terrific site you have going there.
Thanks for making it known.

JIM

[0533]

Hi Pam & Lloyd,

Good info, we will add all to our list. Jasper sounds great, love the idea of hiking for food and drink. Will make this happen.

We are now in Custer SD. at Custer Culch Campground, great spot, just outside of the gate at Custer State Park, would recommend this park to all. Excellent location, trails outside door, best sites we have seen, best water, best 50 amp power, owners are outstanding, make this place a stop if you are heading along Rt 90 out west. Elaine and Ray are the owners, will do to anything to help, even let us use their entire shop, excellent shop, other campers mostly seasonal from around the country really nice folks, could spend a month here, Custer is a nice town, lots of historic sites within a 50 mile radius. I will add some pics in another reply.

Did have one problem negotiating a tunnel on 1-16 inside Custer State Park, see image, had to lower the air, remove mirrors and take off all antenna on roof, still there trying to put all back together (just kidding) did see an older site seeing MCI making this tour through all of these little tunnels, I felt uncomfortable even in the toad.

We will be heading to Vancouver after Banff/Jasper, then on down the west coast to LA. business and pleasure then back across I-15 to Vegas, I-70 to Denver etc returning heading east later this summer.

Great trip. Most all systems have worked well, had some issues with our friends at Hughes. changed Sat to 99W all is good, bus running like a top.

[0533]

Few pics from Custer State Park area. There are some great driving tours, Mount Rushmore, Excellent trails at the campground that go directly into the park, Stockade lake about a 1/4 mile from campground, lots to do.

[Ray Davis]

Bruce, can you clarify for me please. There is no listed "Custer's Culch" campground, but there are three different "Custer's Gulch" campgrounds listed in the general vicinity of Custer SD.

Can you verify what the address is there? I'm going to be heading through SD after POG, and that looks like a nice place to stop.

Thanks,
Ray

[0533]

25112 Golden Valley Rd, Custer SD. 57730 Ph. 1-605-673-4647. We are in site #43, largest Pull through behind Main office, very quiet, the sites 42, 44 are also huge, level, clear sky sites, these are the easiest to manage and very nice views of the hills and meadows outside of the park.

[Ray Davis]

Thanks Bruce,

Just scoped it out, and it seems that it's very close to where the previous POG rally was held (which I wasn't able to attend).

[0533]

You will enjoy the park, and the close access to all attractions.

Here are a few pics from behind the park on the trails and lake.

having difficulty loading pics on my Sat, will get more later.

[GDeen]

Surely you don't have to negotiate that tunnel to get into the park right?