On the 12th March we left Jasper and headed south through the Rockies on our way to Hungry Horse, Montana. We booked a couple of nights in Lethbridge on the way to break up our trip, as we weren't sure how long it would take us to cross the border to the USA.

Driving down through Banff National park (and Banff itself) was amazing again, the Icefield Parkway lived up to its reputation as being an amazing highway to drive down!

Lethbridge was a fun stopover destination, the scenary change we encountered was remarkable. Southern Alberta has an effect called the Chinook winds where the wind crossing the Rockies increases and then warms up as it drops down to the plains. This means that much of southern Alberta is free of snow! We really felt like we were entering cowboy country, the buffalo signs and place names were like something from a movie, and we were constantly stopping to have a laugh at the unusual names and sights.

Lethbridge itself was a moderately large town and we managed to catch another ice hockey game, this time from the stands so we actually saw the strategy part of the game rather than the up-close and bloody version.

The USA border took us some time to cross, but they allowed us in after 40 minutes of waiting around (we were the only people crossing at the time, I can't believe it took so long) Our first impression of Montana was a bit of a shock, the roads hadn't been cleared of snow for some time and the road signs were actually covered by the snow! The first few towns were closed for winter, so I was quite glad that we had plenty of petrol left and could take our time.

Sadly the road throught the Glacier National park, which we had planned to use, was also shut for the winter so we had to take a massive detour around the south of the Park. We made it easily enough and moved into our new cabin in the woods!

The Weeping Wall, in Banff National Park

Ridiculously picturesque scenary in the Rockies

Southern Alberta

Huh? Apparently this was the First Nations' prefered method of hunting buffalo before horses were brought over. Chasing herds over a cliff and letting them fall to their death. Nice.

Made it!

And this road sign is for.....?

Yep, we're in the USA!