San francisco to Banff and back

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions on possible itineraries and/or plans please

Who's going? When? What kinds of things interest you?

What are you driving?

How much $$?

Three of us ( Couple 40's and daughter 9 ) + Dog...Golden Lab.
Start date July 10 thru July-18 for a period of 3 weeks max
Love nature ( mountains, lakes, beaches but not for swimming, National parks, and only must see places in cities...not big on museums or zoos or non-family oriented entertainment )

Driving a big SUV/ Mini_van.

About $5K as a budget ( not including food ) and have max of 3 weeks to get back.


Thanks for any advise, suggestions and plans.

Best.

Have you already "done" the Northern California/ Oregon coast? If so and you'd like to see National Parks, I'd recommend taking I-5 up into BC, BC-1 (a.k.a. Trans-Canada Hwy) over to Kamloops and through Glacier and Yoho National Parks and into Banff. While the chateau at Lac Louise is very nice, we stayed at more affordable and bigger rooms in Canmore.

From Banff back to San Francisco you may want to try heading east to Calgary and then down south along AB-2, 3 and 4 until you get back into the US of A and heading down I-15. That will take you all the way down to US-89, and that will take you through Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. To get back to I-15 take WY-22 west to ID-33 west to ID-31 west to US-26 west (it sounds a lot harder than it is). At Pocatello take I-86/US-30/I-84 west. Around Twin Falls US-93 south will take you down to I-80 west and your path home.

Once you decide on the general route you can work on the specific things to see. My recommendation is based on trying to fit in as many beautiful national parks in a reasonable time (e.g. not taking dog-legs to Glacier or North Cascades National Parks that may end up adding too much driving).