Questions about possible trip to Banff area / national parks / driving in Alberta/BC

Charles Kozierok writes:
First, we are considering doing this in July. Will all the roads and
trails and such usually be open by mid-July?

I'm pretty sure they will.

Third and most important: the airfares to Calgary from my area (near
Albany) are hideously expensive. However, Southwest is running a seat
sale and they fly to Spokane. Going that route would save us over $1000.

We would then need to drive from Spokane up to Banff. This seems to
involve either looping through Montana -- a very long drive -- or taking
rather twisty highways through the mountains of Idaho, BC and Alberta.

Yes, do that. It's all scenic country around there; you'll enjoy it.

If you do the Montana route in one direction, you could take Going-to-
the-Sun road across Glacier National Park (the US one), which is also
very scenic. I'd recommend an overnight stop on that route.

(I'm presuming that Canada Customs would have no reason to consider you
a Canadian resident. Canadian residents can't bring US rental cars into
Canada. Note also that a US car will have a mph speedometer with tiny
km/h markings, and an odometer that reads in miles, whereas Canadian roads
are posted in km/h and km -- but most people find that no big deal.)
--
Mark Brader, Toronto / "There are three types of software documentation:
/ tutorial, mnemonic and misleading." --Larry Colen

My text in this article is in the public domain.