We chose Banff, Canada, as the vacation destination for our 10th wedding anniversary because we could combine two of our favorite things: our pups and the great outdoors. While traveling and flying from the United States to most destinations outside the country requires inconvenient and costly pet health certificates from certified vets — and some destinations even require quarantines that make it completely impractical to travel with pets — the only travel requirement for driving across the border to Canada with a dog is a rabies vaccine.

Not only was it easy to travel to Canada with a dog, but the vacation itself in Banff was a dog mom’s dream vacation: we were able to take the pups along with us practically EVERYWHERE! Most national parks in the national parks do not allow pets at all, or restrict them to only the parking lots, but most of the national parks in and around Banff allow pets on the trails.

We were so excited to start our special vacation with our pups and finally see Banff, but three days worth of driving and two nights of camping stood between us and Canada!

Our first night’s stop was in Buffalo, Wyoming, beside a babbling brook in Crazy Woman Canyon.

The second night, we camped outside of St. Mary, Montana, just south of Glacier National Park. We could see Glacier National Park across the road from us! We picked a spot on a hill that had great views, but one of us ended up hiding in the tent practically the whole time and didn’t even enjoy the views! Right after we arrived, there was a giant horse fly or bee-like bug that was flying around and literally harassing us the moment we started to unpack. Hubby was not worried about it and kept setting up camp, but it ended up biting/stinging him on the hand and was quite painful for him for a good 30 minutes. Even after the tent was set up and the sun had set, this bug (and/or its buddies) still kept circling the tent with the pups and me hiding inside!

We went to bed late that night around 11 p.m. and woke up super early to pack up camp in the pitch dark at 4 a.m. because we had decided on a whim that we should drive through Glacier National Park on our way to Canada the next morning. Most of the national parks in the United States now require timed-entry permits/reservations after 6 a.m., which we didn’t have, so our goal was to get there before 6 a.m. We weren’t the only ones that ended up doing this, as we were part of a convoy of vehicles driving into the park at the butt crack of dawn.

We did the famous Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park on the morning of our third travel day. Dogs are not allowed on the trails in the park, so we couldn’t stop to do any hiking, but just being able to do the drive itself was scenic enough and worth the early start. It was so cool to see the road carved into the side of the mountain as we continued around each bend in the road.

It was so nerve-racking crossing the border into Canada. We knew we would just need passports for us and rabies vaccination proof for the pups, but a few days prior to our travel, we were double-checking to make sure there wasn’t anything else we should be aware of and ended up finding confusing info on what and how much food and alcohol we were allowed to take over.

Since we were camping for two days and wanted to mostly cook our own meals along the way, and also wanted the convenience of bringing our own food and alcohol to the condo we were staying in, we obviously would have an ample stash of contraband in the vehicle. We ended up trying to consume copious amounts of alcohol and meats/produce right before crossing the border because we didn’t want to unknowingly break any rules. We thought we would look suspicious traveling with an entire vehicle packed to the brim, but the border patrol person ended up let us through without any hassle. We worried for nothing!

Only 30 minutes after crossing the border into Canada, a bear crossed the road right in front of us. This was so exciting because we thought it was going to be the first of many wildlife sightings, since Canada is known for its wildlife; ironically enough, we ended up not seeing any other wildlife except a quick sighting of a roadside longhorn sheep. We were so bummed about that and joked how we see more wildlife in Colorado!

Because of our early start this morning, we were going to arrive to our condo too early to check in, so we took two longer, scenic routes into town. There were towering mountains at every turn on our drive! We were so glad we had time for these impromptu detours!

The condo we stayed in was actually in Canmore, which is 20 minutes outside of the more popular town of Banff. Canmore was a much more peaceful town and not as touristy, but still just as gorgeous as Banff. Our condo building had incredible mountains in the backdrop and a tranquil stream right across the street.

There was also an outdoor hot tub in the building with an incredible view that we looked forward to relaxing in every night after our hikes, but we ended up only getting to visit it once and found out right away that the pups couldn’t handle being left alone in the room. They just whined the whole time being in a new and unfamiliar place. If we were in a single-family home, we could have let them cry it out, but not in a condo with other guests around.

We were really spoiled by having a condo that was located down the street from the central area of Canmore where all the restaurants and shops were. We dined here almost every day with the pups and especially loved the cute bear statue in the middle of the street! Stay tuned to read more about the adventures we had during out Banff trip!