Minnesota to Calgary

[awesomemn]

Hello, I am in need of advice for the best road route from Minnesota to Calgary this summer in August. I have looked at maps and came up with a few routes. We are doing this drive in 2 days / 1 night hotel stop, day 1 will be our longest day and day 2 goal is to arrive by 5 or 6pm in Calgary.

#1 94 through ND into Glendive, MT and take 200S north to Hwy 2 West to Glasgow and stop there for the night. Day 2 continue to Shelby, MT take the I-15? North into Canada to Calgary....
Notes: Should be at least 70mph all the way... Is Montana Hwy 2 a good road to be traveling at highspeed on all the way across MT?

#2: 94 West to Belfield, ND and take 85 North to Moose Jaw, SK and stay the night there, take the TransCanadaian HWY 1 to Calgary.

#3: RandMcNally.com says to go from Minneapolis to Grand Forks to Winnipeg and then take the
Notes: Seems kind of pointless to go straight north to Winnpeg and drive most of the way to Calgary on canadian hwy with the high gas prices.

Any recommendations? How much does gas cost in Canada compared to northern U.S.?

Thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Hello, I am in need of advice for the best road route from Minnesota to Calgary this summer in August

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum!

Any recommendations? How much does gas cost in Canada compared to northern U.S.?

That first part is easy -- here are some comparisons!

day 1 will be our longest day and day 2 goal is to arrive by 5 or 6pm in Calgary.
#1 94 through ND into Glendive, MT and take 200S north to Hwy 2 West to Glasgow and stop there for the night. Day 2 continue to Shelby, MT take the I-15? North into Canada to Calgary.... Notes: Should be at least 70mph all the way... Is Montana Hwy 2 a good road to be traveling at highspeed on all the way across MT?

This is the route I would choose, MT-2 is not a high-speed highway per se, but I averaged close to those speeds last August -- you really need to drive slow in the towns, 15-25 mph max because of the speed traps! The biggest problem you will have is finding a motel during the week along that stretch -- that is prime swim meet season and every available motel will be full -- so make your reservations now.

Read these tips for speed runs and be safe!

Mark

[awesomemn]

Thanks for the reply!

From the info I found on Hwy 2 MT is that it is a single lane each direction hwy that isn't much as far as scenery (not that important but is a bonus for such a long drive). The slower speeds in towns concerns me some as we really need to get as far as we can at a decent time of night. I figured from Glasgow it would be roughly 7.5hrs including brief stops to Calgary (traveling at 70pmh).

Also my traveling group is 3 people in wheelchairs, so accessibility at stops and hotels is important. I only found 2 small non-chain hotels in Glasgow, each has 1 accessible room (we could probably make regular rooms work for 1 night).

I'm starting to think going to Belfield ND and taking US hwy north to Moose Jaw might be our best option, more hotels there and then the canadian hwy is decent (I took the Winnepeg to Calgary route 10 years ago and that seemed a bit out of the way).

Any info on the US 85 route to Canada in ND? Decent highway speed?

Thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

From the info I found on Hwy 2 MT is that it is a single lane each direction hwy that isn't much as far as scenery

I would differ with that -- I just drove it last year, most of it is very scenic.

I figured from Glasgow it would be roughly 7.5hrs including brief stops to Calgary (traveling at 70pmh).

Ummmm. By the shortest possible distance it is 500 miles and the fastest you could cover that distance is about nine hours, but with border crossings and the slow-downs in those towns, I would be truly, truly amazed if you could get there any faster than 10 hours of continous travel. In order for you to average 70 mph over a 7.5 hour period, on that route, you will have to be driving slightly over 95 mph for most of the day, (whenever you can).

Any info on the US 85 route to Canada in ND? Decent highway speed?

Same issues, less town though -- rule of thumb -- you can probably average 57 mph over a day's travel -- but you still need to to plan on full day's travel!

Mark

[awesomemn]

Thanks again for the info!

Ok so now I am even more concerned about our trip timeline hehe. I figure we can easily do 75mph on 94, probably 80 at parts. We need to get to Calgary by 5:30pm Day 2.... We plan on leaving Rogers (North of Minneapolis) by around 8am... a good long day, need to be in the hotel by 10pm. Day 2 be on the road by 8am. I am wondering if we can do this.

10 years ago we did this in 1 full day and 2/3rds of the 2nd day, we took some highway down from Canada near the ND / MT border and took small Hwys through Minot down to Grand Forks. We made great time, this was our return trip to MN. So I know it can be done, at least 10yrs ago we did it when I was 18.

When I use Rand McNally or Google maps and punch in Minneapolis, MN to Calgary, AB they both say to go to Grand Forks to Winnipeg and take Canada Hwy 1 all the way to Calgary. I94 should be 70-80mph to canada border, then the Canada Hwy 1 should be 100kmph/62mph all the way. Is this our quickest route considering MT or ND Hwys are mostly single lane and slow down in towns?

If it doesn't seem like we are going to be able to make it to Calgary by 5:30pm Day 2 (a Friday), I may have to try to leave a evening earlier and get 4-5hrs in that night and add an extra hotel night for the way there, the way back we have 2 full days.

Thanks!