Day 121 - 2015-08-19
We arrived in Jasper AB today. 58 (14,714).
We went into town, got good information at the visitor center and had
lunch at the local pub. Bettie had
water, but I opted for the locally brewed Bearhill Brewing Co Rockhopper
IPA. Nothing bad to say about it, so OK.
Jasper is a nice town – like you would imagine an alpine ski
town. Small, find of quaint, some high
end places and some not so high end – something for everyone.
We checked into the Whistlers Campground just outside of
town – along with 779 of our closed camping buddies. Kidding aside, even though this is a HUGE
campground, the sites are nicely separated and you would never know you were in
a small city of RVs. Pretty nice place
to stay for a couple of days.
Even though we did not do any exploring, we turned today
into a momentous day. After much
wringing of hands over the last couple of weeks, we finally decided on our
route home – we wrote it down, so it must be official. We still have a lot of travelling to do and
having a plan in mind makes it MUCH easier to enjoy it. We both admit to being a little road weary,
but knowing how our last leg of the trip will play out gives us a bit of a new
spark. We still have lots to see before
we get home.
Day 122 - 2015-08-20
Jasper area today. First stop – Medicine Lake. This is a disappearing lake. It got its name from the Indians who said it
was magic – “big medicine”. This is a
very cool place. In the fall, when the
snow melt stops, the lake drains into underground caves, leaving only a small
creek. In the spring, when the snow melt
exceeds the capacity of the underground aquifer, the lake fills and remains
full throughout the summer until it begins to drain again in the late
summer/early fall. It has already begun
to drain for this year and is down maybe 10 feet from its high water mark.
We continued up the road to Maligne Lake. There are lots of hiking trails here and the
lake is perfect for kayaking, except for us – today it was about 50*F, so we
decided to take in the view from the land and leave the water sports to more
hardy souls.
As we drove back down we stopped again at Medicine Lake
overlook because there were mountain sheep on the road. This is perhaps the funniest picture we have
taken. I guess there was something much
more interesting than the sheep – the photographers seemed to think so – but
apparently I missed it.
The sheep were a different variety than those we encountered
near Muncho Lake, but I don’t know their name.
Next, we stopped at Maligne Canyon, where there is a series
of trails that follow the Maligne River as it flows down to the Athabascan
River. This canyon is basically a big,
deep, narrow crack in the rock. It is
spectacular. Even though the best of the
pictures doesn’t begin to do it justice.
Note that I made sure to get the 3 nuns in the picture to give it some
scale.
We headed back toward the trailer. Along the way we saw more sheep.
And, an elk that was not the least bit concerned that it was
grazing along a busy highway within touching distance of onlookers. Sorry for the bad focus, I snapped this from
the truck as we passed.
This was a fun day - 2 elk sightings, 2 sheep sightings, a
moose, and some glorious scenery. 119
(14,833).
Day 123 - 2015-08-21
Not much to say about today.
It rained all night. It rained
all morning. We had intended to drive the Icefields Parkway today, but it
looked like the road was completely socked in by clouds and rain. We hoped we could stay and extra day here in
our campsite at Whistler, but the ranger told me they were completely reserved
for tonight. I decided to try again an
hour later and lucked into a cancellation – with full hook ups nonetheless – a
nice treat since we have been off the grid for several days. The battery on the trailer failed today. Good timing since Jasper has a NAPA. And, my printer failed today. Bad timing since Jasper does not have any
place that sells Brother ink cartridges.
I’ll have to wait for another opportunity to resolve that issue (sorry
Helen, I’ll be a little late with reports).
The mountains got a nice dusting of snow at the higher elevations last
night – looks very different than it did yesterday – kind of like someone
sprinkled powdered sugar on them. 32 (14,865).
Day 124 - 2015-08-22
I slept late today – 9:45.
Bettie was up earlier and tells me we had ice on the kayaks this
morning. I believe it. It is a crystal clear “Chamber of Commerce”
day. By 10:30 we were on our way down
the Icefields Parkway (AB 93). Our first
big stop was Athabasca Falls. This is a
very steep, short canyon on the Athabasca River.
For the first time, we saw a drone – flying over and almost
right into the falls. It must have
gotten some incredible video – including me taking a picture of it.
As we continued south we climbed to nearly 6,000 feet. On our way up we were rewarded with
exceptional scenery.
Remember I mentioned before about the views that just
appeared in front of the truck?
Our final destination today was the Icefields Centre. This is the heart of the Banff National Park
and overlooks the Athabasca Glacier, the beginning of the Athabasca River we
have been following all day long.
Camping here is in the parking lot of the centre – but oh
what a view!!!
Today really reinforced that we still have a lot of amazing
things to see and do before we get back home.
This was an incredible day of driving.
72 (14,937).
Day 125 - 2015-08-23
We got up at 1:10 am and went outside to look at the
stars. These parks are part of the “Dark
Sky Preserve” and on a clear night offer exceptional views of the sky. We got lucky. The sky above us was clear and
neither of us can remember seeing stars like this. The bright stars were
brilliant, but in the background was a mass of dimmer stars that I don’t ever
recall seeing. It was an amazing sight.
We awoke to a mostly clear morning over the icefield and
glacier. But to our amazement we saw the
rarest of sightings – a Canadian dolphin.
The rest of the morning was spent driving the Icefields
Parkway to Lake Louise. 70
(15,007). We saw so many spectacular
sights along the way. We would turn a
corner or crest a rise and there would be some beautiful vista laid out in
front of us.
We tried to go see Lake Louise this afternoon, but the
traffic was so horrendous we gave up, turned around, and went back to the
campsite. Before we even got close to
the hotel area, cars were parked on both sides of the road. Had to be a half mile walk to get there. Even if we found a place to park, we didn’t
really think we wanted to be there. It’s
Sunday, so maybe it was just a crowded weekend day, lots of Calgary daytrippers. Hope so.
We’ll try again tomorrow.
Day 126 - 2015-08-24
The smoke from the Wasgington forest fires moved in last night and
obscured our vision of everything. So,
after a restful night’s sleep next to the freight train tracks, we were on our
way about 10:00 am to enjoy Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. We made it to the parking area at Lake Louise
and were directed to the overflow. Not
too bad. There were a few places to park
and it only added a short walk to the agenda.
We headed to the lake and found ourselves in an absolute THRONG of
people. The lake was beautiful, but the
smoke was so thick we could barely see the glacier and icefield at the other
end. This is obviously one of the most
beautiful places on earth, but the mash of people and the smoke made our
encounter less than good.
After waiting in line in the parking lot to get to the exit,
we made the short drive to Moraine Lake Road.
The road looked like it had some nice views, but with the smoke, we had
to use our imaginations. About a half
mile before the parking lot, we came upon people parking on both sides of the
road. Not encouraging. It was still early, so we decided to make one
pass through the parking lot to see if we got lucky. That didn’t work out, but at least we got a
drive-by look at the lake. Equally as
pretty as Lake Louise. But, we didn’t
even bother to take any pictures because of the smoke.
Today is our 41st wedding anniversary. We ate lunch in town, something we rarely
do. Tonight Bettie made a baked Homer
Halibut, with some kind of yummy topping.
We paired it with the finest Copper Moon Pinot Grigio box wine. Oh how I miss the fruits of the Okanagan
Valley. 43 (15,050).
Day 127 - 2015-08-25
Smoke sucks! After
missing out on the views of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake yesterday, we awoke to
thick smoke again this morning. We broke
camp and headed south on Canada 1A, the old highway through Banff and Jasper
before they built the new Trans-Canada Freeway and dubbed it Canada 1. We had camping reservations at Johnston
Canyon, but by the time we got there, it was obvious that we were not going to
see anything other than smoke. We cancelled the campsite and went into Calgary
for some much needed errand time. We
stopped at an overlook just south of Johnston Canyon. This is the Bow River valley and there is a huge
mountain in the background – you’ll have to look closely to even see its
outline.
The smoke in Calgary tonight is thicker than either of us
have ever encountered. Maybe 1/8 mile
visibility, maybe not that much at times.
We got our errands done and stayed inside. The air quality advisory said that on a scale
of 1-10, this is a 16 (according to Calgary News, 32 is dirt). We will leave
tomorrow, but don’t know if our situation will improve or not. 121 (15,171).
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