For years I have wanted to visit Canada, and this September will be my first opportunity. This will also be my first flight across an international border so I have begun researching all the post-911nonsense that is now required to do so. My panel was recently upgraded so I have all the hardware I will need to comply with ELT, transponder, and ADS-B Out requirements.
My real questions are 1) is early September too late in the year for decent flying weather in Southern Canada? and 2) as I will be coming from the Albuquerque, NM area I envision a destination or two in an arc between Calgary and Winnipeg. Not being at all familiar with this area are there any suggestions on where to go? Since the wife will probably accompany me, camping will unfortunately be out of the question, as will fishing, or hiking. I think with her tastes and capabilities we will mostly just be interested in seeing beautiful landscapes and being able to find great places to eat. And I probably won't be able to spend more than about 3 days in-country since travel will most likely take 2 days each way. Suggestions?

Well with all respect to the prairies for first trip you should see the Canadian Rockies. Fly to Springbank (west of Calgary), rent a car
and drive to Banff - stay at the Banff Springs($$$) and drive to Lake Louise -stay the Chateau Lake Louise ($$$). Expensive but will ensure wife will go again! Great scenery - just from view points or short walks. All food options. Drive up to Columbia Icefields and go on glacier tour. Go back to Springbank and If weather is severe clear fly Banff to Jasper and then onwards. September can be perfect - clear air, bugs & crowds are gone.

http://archive.copanational.org/PlacesToFly/airport_view.php?pr_id=2&ap_id=100

http://www.ybw.ca/About/AirportInformation.aspx

I'll second cbfrasers post. Everything east is flat and kind of boring... no offense.

East of the Rockies is pretty boring. If you want lasting memories visit beautiful British Columbia.

Easy now...

I'm a BC boy; born and raised...but southern SK and AB have some great country to see from the air. The Cypress Hills in SK, Grasslands Natl. Park, and the area around Drumheller are fantastic...Cypress Hills being my favourite.

After living in Winnipeg MB for three years, I can tell you that there is nothing at all worth seeing in Manitoba...and the people are not that friendly despite the claim on the license plate logo.

Pilots in southern Manitoba are pretty friendly. And I'll agree that the area north and east of drumheller is pretty awesome. But staying west and near the Rockies is absolutely beautiful. For a first visit I'd recommend visiting there. Second visit I'd say stick around drumheller or come farther north and see some of us northern folk.
The Frazer river valley is also a great flight. But it's best to follow it north a ways and by then you should just keep heading north to Alaska! Haha.

If you are in the Calgary area and like fossils fly to Drumheller and take in the Royal Tyrrell Museum http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/

The night sky there is pretty awesome as well.

The BC coast is awesome too:)

NMXWinds wrote:..... My panel was recently upgraded so I have all the hardware I will need to comply with ELT, transponder, and ADS-B Out requirements.......

Off topic, but what brand ADS-B out did you install, and how much did it cost?

X2 for western Canada over central. It's much more scenic.

I have been flying Southwestern Canada in September and October for years. This area often enjoys lingering areas of high pressure in the fall, but you obviously can't be certain of what you'll get. I've found later September early October to be consistently the best weather throughout the northwest US southwest BC.

Border crossing in to Canada is generally no big deal. Often times it is just a telephone conversation rather than an actual meeting. Abbotsford has proven a good choice as an airport of entry

Coming back in to the US can be a bigger deal. The guilty until proven innocent mentality has really possessed most of the DHS folks. I was once fined $5000.00 for a mistake that they made. They admitted that it was their fault, and said that they couldn't drop it once it was in their system and couldn't drop the fine to less than $500.00 because of internal policy Would have cost me much more to fight it I'm sure.

My point is, make sure all of your is are dotted, ts are crossed and you are ready to pretend to have tremendous respect for someone who will likely show little to no respect to you. Bellingham is the best airport of entry in to the US in my experience.

Here is a vid that I put together of a trip to British Columbia from early May to help you get your stoke on:

Thanks Everyone for the suggestions and advice. If I had more vacation time I would explore more of Canada, and maybe even continue on to Alaska. It's on my bucket list anyway...
Hotrod180, regarding my ADS-B install, among other things, I had all Garmin equipment put in to include a GTN-650 (for the WAAS GPS requirement), GTX-330ES (for the data transmit requirement and to be fully compliant with transponder frequencies used outside the US), and a GDL-88 so that I could receive free traffic and weather information on both 1090 and 978 MHz. I'm not sure what it cost just for these components alone because I had additional work done on the panel. It cost a fortune, but I can also say that the shop I used, AATG in Greeley, CO, was the most reasonably priced shop that responded to my requests for quotes (I'm amazed at the number of shops that didn't even respond! I guess they have enough work to ignore people like me). They did quality work and were extremely fair on pricing the inevitable unforeseen additional work. I think my total cost creep from the original quote was around 3%.