Canada Road trip tips

D

Doff

Advanced Member
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Nov 4, 2019
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HI all
We are getting our FWC installed in the middle of July. We are taking a month off work for an inaugural road trip. Our plan is to start near the Great Lakes and drive north into Canada and then west towards Vancouver. Once at the coast well head south back home to California. I love the planning process of a trip, so starting now. We have never been to Canada...its HUGE so its a bit daunting to narrow down where to go. Does anyone have suggestions for places to visit? sites to see? Hikes? Routes to take? Good disbursement camping spots? Well be in out F250 with a hawk FWC. Well have our dogs with us, so we like private campsites where the dogs can enjoy themselves. Any tips, ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!

THANKS!
Dan
 
We did about 2 months up from Idaho to the Maritimes. Used iOverlander a lot and found some amazing camp spots. I'm sure you'll find so many you may not come home :).

BTW, in case you didn't know, radar detectors are illegal in most (if not all) of Canada and they'll take them away and fine you. I found out the hard way. RCMP was having a bad day that day I guess and said he had a detector-detector. It was ok as my radar detector was 20+ years old and I should have known better. It was the fine that was the kicker. Needless to say, I probably can't go back to New Brunswick :)
 
Our favorite TV series right now is about small Canadian towns and I'd like to recommend it as part of your trip planning / familiarization process while you wait for your camper to be ready. It's called "Still Standing" and is hosted by a very talented comedian, Johnny Harris. There are four 13-episode seasons of it on Amazon Prime, each episode a different small town.

Incredibly, Johnny and his crew go into a small town for five days and then put on a 45-minute show at the local theater or community center.

Here's a sample episode from YouTube... (this one is about a town in Nova Scotia but there are episodes from all over Canada)

Still Standing in Mabou!
.
 
We will have about 3 weeks from the time we leave the Great Lakes area until the time we need to be back in Central Sierra Nevada of California. We don't mind driving 14-16hour days a few times as needed. But would also like to take a few days to set up a "basecamp" somewhere and explore around. We try to 100% avoid developed campgrounds...mostly so out dogs can have fun and we dont have to worry about them bothering other campers. We enjoy areas with pretty scenery and I like a nice river or lake to cast a line into and take a dip.

We know there is a risk the border will still be closed...but we're keeping fingers crossed. My wife and I already received the first dose of the vaccine last week. If it ends up we can't get into Canada, then we'll just make our way through the northern US.
 
What kinds of activities? Hiking? Canoeing/Kayaking/Fishing? Museums? Having lived in Winnipeg for 16 years, I would suggest getting to the mountains as fast a possible :D That's not entirely fair to the prairies, but I love vertical/mountains/lakes.
 
Vic Harder said:
What kinds of activities? Hiking? Canoeing/Kayaking/Fishing? Museums? Having lived in Winnipeg for 16 years, I would suggest getting to the mountains as fast a possible :D That's not entirely fair to the prairies, but I love vertical/mountains/lakes.
Click to expand...
We are definitely mountain folk....so that was our plan. probably a silly question...but (looking at a map) where are the boundaries of the mountain areas vs the praises? Activities would be mostly hiking and fishing. We enjoy exploring small rural towns, but that may not be the best if the pandemic is still in full force come July. Since our FWC is going to be brand-new, I think a lot of our time is going to be spent enjoying the camper...so finding awesome campsites (solitude and near water and trails) are our top priorities. I know its a long drive all the way across Canada, but hoping to avoid main highways as much as possible and enjoy some of the side country roads :)
 
"hoping to avoid main highways as much as possible and enjoy some of the side country roads" I'm laughing, because even our #1 highway is a "side road" compared to many US interstates.

If you look at a map that has geological features, it is easier to spot where the Prairies end... between Calgary and Banff if you are in the south, and around Hinton if you are up north near Edmonton.

You will not find a lot of "dispersed" aka "free" camping in Canada. BC seems to have more of that though, so check out the book "Camp Free in BC". Also the BackRoads Guidebook series is good too.

If you want slightly better scenery across the Prairies, consider taking hwy 16 out of Winnipeg to get to Edmonton and from there on to Jasper. The #1 is shorter/faster and deadly boring, in my opinion. We used to drive that Winnipeg to Vancouver annually to visit family. The 'Peg to Calgary run is 13 hours of driving at speed limit, and the Mounties are active on that road.

Once in Calgary you are just 90 minutes away from the Rockies. Highly recommend checking out Kananaskis Country - Where Locals Hike. There are Provincial Parks in K-Country and campsites that take reservations, and also some first come first served sites that we tend to favour. West Spray Lakes is a nice camping area... but be warned that Calgarians FILL these campsites by Thursday noon, so arrive before that if you are around on a weekend.

DO drive the Icefields Parkway, with this book - Don't Waste you time in the Canadian Rockies - in hand. We've had good luck getting into the Wilcox Campground some weekends... it is cold (altitude and closeness to the Icefields) and has short/sharp corners so no trailers are getting in there.

I'm hoping a few others will hop onto this thread to add more info...
 
Old Crow said:
Our favorite TV series right now is about small Canadian towns and I'd like to recommend it as part of your trip planning / familiarization process while you wait for your camper to be ready. It's called "Still Standing" and is hosted by a very talented comedian, Johnny Harris. There are four 13-episode seasons of it on Amazon Prime, each episode a different small town.

Incredibly, Johnny and his crew go into a small town for five days and then put on a 45-minute show at the local theater or community center.

Here's a sample episode from YouTube... (this one is about a town in Nova Scotia but there are episodes from all over Canada)

Still Standing in Mabou!
.
Click to expand...
A quick hijack - thanks to Old Crow for mentioning Still Standing. We are greatly enjoying the series.
 
ski3pin said:
A quick hijack - thanks to Old Crow for mentioning Still Standing. We are greatly enjoying the series.
Click to expand...
Check out the episode where Johnny visits Teeswater, Ontario. I know most of the Guys in that episode.
 
ski3pin said:
A quick hijack - thanks to Old Crow for mentioning Still Standing. We are greatly enjoying the series.
Click to expand...

Wandering Sagebrush said:
+1
Click to expand...

penner said:
Check out the episode where Johnny visits Teeswater, Ontario. I know most of the Guys in that episode.
Click to expand...
:)

(We like to watch an episode just before going to bed. They're short enough to fill in that odd bit of time left over after watching a movie or something. And they're always funny and upbeat.)
 
Not to Hijack the thread further but do our northern neighbors have any insight when or whether the border might reopen ?

Many thanks

David Graves
 
DavidGraves said:
Not to Hijack the thread further but do our northern neighbors have any insight when or whether the border might reopen ?

Many thanks

David Graves
Click to expand...
Nothing official David. I personally am not expecting the borders opening before the fall. That's because at present it looks like immunization won't reach everyone until September at best, and I would think we would want to have that done before opening the borders.
 
Thanks Vic

I share your point of view...we will be lucky if things are somewhat normal by Fall.

Many thanks
 
We are hoping to go to the Canadian Maritimes this year. Originally we were hoping to go at the end of June but have pushed back our possible departure to August and will adjust as necessary.
‘Earlier today I ran across this website showing the distribution of the vaccines to the various provinces and thought I’d share..

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/prevention-risks/covid-19-vaccine-treatment/vaccine-rollout.html#a4

And if you’re Canadian and want to get an idea of when you might be eligible to receive your vaccine look at this article..
https://globalnews.ca/news/7568611/coronavirus-vaccine-queue-calculator-canada/


In the US the vaccine rollout is determined by which state you live in and their distribution protocol. My wife is 1B and I’m 1C which means that we should receive our vaccines in the next month or two. I guess I’m wondering what protocol will be rolled out that would allow travel across borders once people have received both vaccines but I have not been able to find any information on this...
 
"Oh Canada, Oh Canada, We hope to go to Canada"

Sometime before we...well you know.

DG
 
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