Day 8 - (Natural) Disaster Strikes

Well, this will be the saddest travel blog post I write. Our trip to the Banff area has had to be cancelled. We crossed into Canada today, blissfully unaware that the wildfires have been ravaging many parts of BC, Canada. When we crossed into Canada, the line of cars leaving was very long, much longer than when we came in last Tuesday. We learned all too soon why: smoke. As we drove north into Canada, it was clear that wildfire smoke was in the area. Will panicked right away, but I was still hopefully that two hours further north would be fine. Our stay for the night is in Invermere, BC, about 2 hours from the Banff area. Sadly, when we stopped at the visitor's center here, the woman confirmed that the smoke is pretty bad in Banff. When we got to our hotel, we called the owner of the place we were to stay in. He is in Edmonton, Alberta, even further north, and admitted the smoke was there, too. He called the people who clean to the condo, who confirmed that it's quite bad there. He is allowing us to cancel without penalty, other than the fee that HomeAway charges ($75), which he can't control. 

This leaves us spinning our wheels. Our flight home (next Monday!) is through West Jet Air, sort of the Spirit Air of Canada. We can cancel the flight, but it will cost $300. And, getting new flights will be about another extra $800 because we had a good deal. So, if we go home, we will essentially be paying $1100 to not have our trip. This seems bad. To get far enough away from the smoke, we need to go south. We can go back to the Glacier area, but we're not sure where we will stay. It's high season and most places closer to the park are totally booked. After thinking about our two bedroom luxury place near Banff, the idea of a roadside motel is very unappealing. Another option is driving to Coeur d'Alene, ID, which is about 4.5 hours from here. We could go stay there for a few days before returning to the area before our flight home. We've been looking into places to stay. 

Bottom line: this is a huge blow. I have been planning this trip for months. And people have built Banff up so much that I'm so disappointed to be missing it. I feel selfish thinking this way because these fires have displaced people and my trip is far less important, but I'm still throwing myself a small pity party. (I invited some wine to the pity party...thank goodness this hotel had a restaurant attached that let me order to-go wine.) We are safe, though, and we will figure it out one way or the other. Stay tuned for where we are tomorrow. I look forward to knowing myself!