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Great Driving Roads - BC / WA / ID / MT / AB route
Greetings all,
I'm currently in a situation where I have to bring some cars from Vancouver, BC to Edmonton, AB (my Lotus Elise and my 3.8L Carrera).
However, I'm interested in getting a few people together to do a bit of a road trip to go out there, since I'm not sure when the next time I'll do this loop.
My plan was: Pick up the cars in Vancouver, Seattle, drive out to Leavenworth, WA, then Spokane, then Missoula, Great Falls, then do the Ice Field Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Parks, then end up in Edmonton.
Obviously not everyone would want to do the full leg, but I've heard Leavenworth is great, and I've heard the Parkway in the Ice Fields is one of the nicest drives in the world.
Just curious if anyone would recommend particular routes or roads, and if anyone wanted to join for part of the journey
I little further out of your way, but a couple of my favorites on a previous road trip were Galena Summit Pass in Idaho and Beartooth Highway in MT/WY.
Going from Vancouver to Leavenworth through Everett could be a little dicey - it is a long uphill drive (incidentally, when I came back from there to Everett, I got the best mileage every in the RST...), and should you end up behind a truck, it'll suck really bad. Leaving east, on 2, should be a nice drive to Spokane, where you will end up on I90, which is a great road.
6 and a half hour run to Missoula (less actually, welcome to 90mph speed limits) again on I90. From there, there are choices - last time I was through, I went 90 and turned off on 12 and stopped in Helena, then 15 north to Great Falls, then 15 all the way to Coutts, @ 90mph, and great road!
There it get's interesting, I stopped in Lloyd, then for the first time in my life, took the Crows Nest - it was pretty awesome. Going that way, you can cut north at Cranbrook, run up to Radium, then head back east along hwy 1 to Calgary, then 2 north to Edmonton.
Nice roads, a big plus, but there's also a really big risk - something breaks, pretty much anywhere out of Missoula, Grand Falls or even Spokane, there is nothing around. I have resisted the urge to take the turbo on that run - the last couple of times I've done it, I took the RST. Back Canada, not much better the further you get away from Calgary. Breaking out there in the middle of nowhere is not a fun thought - there is also very spotty cell coverage in great swaths of Montana...
Highway 2 for the most part is scenic in parts, but rather straight and boring for the bulk of it.
Leavenworth is cool, but the highway isn't something you'll be able to really enjoy.
North Cascades Highway is more enjoyable so unless you have to go to Seattle, I'd take Hwy 20 out of Burlington, south to Chelan, and then backtrack a little to get to Leavenworth if that's a must see destination.
And then from there I'd tale 28 to Ephrata then follow 17 from Soap Lake to Coulee City. You feel like you're driving through parts of Nevada there, it's great. But then going over to Spokane on 2 would be pretty boring so you'd probably want to head back north to 20 to get back to north of Spokane.
Then head north to Sandpoint to Bonners Ferry to catch back up with 2. Take 2 through Kalispell and 'Going to the sun road' in Glacier National Park. Even stuck in crap park traffic it's an amazing drive.
If you wanted to take a more southern route, Hwy 12 between Lewiston and Missoula is fantastic.
I've not explored them yet, but just looking at maps it seems like BC probably has some more fun roads.
Out and back trip to NE Montana I did a few years ago.
The southern route had more driving involvement, but the northern route through Glacier is amazing and could make it more desirable if you've never been there.
03-18-2024, 02:53 PM
Great Driving Roads - BC / WA / ID / MT / AB route
