Our holiday started January 15 with a flight to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When we arrived in Saskatoon in the afternoon the temperature was -22 degrees Celsius (-7.6 degrees F) with the windchill.We spent our first night at the Saskatoon Inn. This is the view from our room on the fourth floor. These structures are actually the skylights on a lower roof than our room. I didn’t venture outside to take more pictures because of the cold. I only took pictures that I could take from the hotel window. As you can see, the snow blew up against the skylights. This is exactly the sort of weather that we are wanting to leave behind as we head south in search of sun and warmth!

This is the inside of the Saskatoon Inn. This atmosphere is tropical in decor and is a stark contrast to the cold winter day outside.

We boarded the motor coach and travelled the first day through the southwest corner of Saskatchewan crossing the Canadian/US border at Climax, SK and Turner, Montana. We spent the first night in the US in Helena, Montana. When we arrived in Helena just after 8:00 pm the temperature was 36 degrees F outside. Although the weather was cold when we left Saskatchewan on the morning of January 16, the sky remained clear and the sun shone as we travelled. You can see by this picture of the sunrise in Helena that we were in for another gorgeous sunny day on day 2 of our travels.

After crossing the Continental Divide at Elk Park Pass we emerged at Butte, Montana.

As we passed through Butte, we could look back over our shoulders to the top of the mountain where we could see Our Lady of the Rockies. Our Lady of the Rockies is a likeness of Mary, Mother of Jesus that stands 90 feet tall and sits atop the Continental Divide 8510 ft. above sea level overlooking Butte, Montana. Our Lady of the Rockies is the United State’s largest Madonna and the second largest statue–second only to the Statue of Liberty: http://www.ourladyoftherockies.com/

You can see by this picture that we have not yet left the snow. However, the sun continued to shine as we travelled along the highway headed towards Idaho.

We crossed the Monida Pass — named after the states it separates: Montana and Idaho. This is a very high mountain pass on the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains at 6,870 ft. The Monida Pass can be a very formidable place in bad weather, experiencing high winds and blowing snow. This is a picture of the fence created to assist the traffic by slowing the wind gusts a bit. The day we travelled the Monida Pass the weather was perfect.

Our lunch stop was Idaho Falls, Idaho.

This is a picture of the angel Moroni statue atop the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. This temple is visible across the Snake River in the Idaho Falls Park.

After lunch we drove through the Idaho Falls Park downtown to get a closer look at the rapids that form the Idaho Falls. The falls were still frozen in some spots, but the weather had warmed enough to allow some of the water to flow freely.

We stopped for afternoon coffee in Ogden, Utah before arriving at our evening destination of Salt Lake City, Utah.