Yeaaah internet access again, here in Jasper… here’s the update of the diary since Banff!

» photo albums 2004/CANADA

Sept. 12th – Bow Valley Parkway

We had a good long sleep, we’re finally catching up – or is it the fresh mountain air? They gave us extra sleeping bags because the nights could get cold, but so far we’ve been fine sleeping underneath one.

Today we took the Bow Valley Parkway (the A1) to Lake Louise. A beautiful road that’s less crowded and more scenic than the Trans Canadian Highway. Of course we were hoping to see some wildlife there, but no such luck. All the bears we’ve seen so far weren’t very alive – either toys (from tiny to at least 2m or 6-7ft. tall!) or real stuffed bears (“a fed bear is a dead bear”). You see bear warnings everywhere, but most dangerous right now are the elk, at least the male ones, it’s rutting season and they’re supposedly very aggressive then. Since they’re quite big too, they can seriously injure you! But.. we haven’t seen them yet either 😉

We stopped at Johnston Canyon and took a hike into the (mostly) limestone canyon to the lower and upper falls, over the many boardwalks they made, hanging on the cliffs, to make the Canyon accessible. Very beautiful and an excellent short hike (5,4 km in total). We stopped for a picknick at one of the most gorgeous spots so far: at the foot of Castle mountain with on the other side the wide view over the river, forests and on the mountains on the opposite side of the valley. I took a shitload of pics there and I think I uttered quite a few “fuckaduck!”‘s 😉 This is pretty much what we came for 🙂

Near Lake Louise we found the campground and got a spot there with electricity again. The sites are in the forest along the railroad, so in the evening and mornings we heard trains go by, whistling loud, probably to warn the wildlife (if it’s there that is, we still didn’t see it). We went to the visitors info centre in “town” (= some hotels and a strip-mall) to ask which campgrounds were open on the way to Jasper, we went to the ski area on the other side of the village to go up with a gondola again – never cheap (this one was CAD 21) but always worth it! Excellent for those like us who don’t go hiking for hours and hours to higher regions and summits 😉 Even though a dozen grizzly bears live on those slopes, we didn’t see one, we only saw some mule deer. The view over the valley (you can see Lake Louise on the other side!) was phenomenal, esp. since you can sit in an open chair (there are also closed gondolas). We got back at 6 or so, so we went to get some groceries, but didn’t find internet access at all. It was Elke‘s birthday, so… happy birthday!!! – we did think of you 🙂 Then we went back to the campground. After dinner, copying the pics onto the laptop and some reading in “An Altitude SuperGuide – Canadian Rockies” we bought there (the most complete guide we’ve seen!), it was time for bed again.

Sept. 13th – Lake Louise, Icefields Parkway, Jasper

We wanted to get to Lake Louise real early (for a parking space and for the light), so we left at 8 – and there were already a few buses of people (lots of Japanese) there! Some Japanese had their morning meditation ritual right there! I have to admit.. the beauty of this lake has not been exaggerated! The sun didn’t touch the surface of the water yet (the sun wasn’t even there, duh!) and the mountains reflected in the milky blue water – what an amazing combination of colours! We waited a while for the sun to come out since the clouds were breaking (in the meantime eating some sandwiches and bagels we brought along) and got some more pics. Then we went to the nearby Moraine Lake: much much much more beautiful even! We got up on the “Pile Of Rock” for the best view (we saw a pika there and some ground squirrels) and the water was very bright and very milky aqua-blue! The snowy peaks of the mountains (the valley’s called the Valley Of The Ten Peaks) were also very impressive. In the Lodge we had a coffee and some pie with maple syrup, mmm!! I gotta take a good supply of that syrup back home with me;). Back in Lake Louise village we got some gas and LPG and hit the road towards Jasper – the famous Icefields Parkway!

Well, the Parkway certainly is beautiful with lots of different scenery, sometimes a lot of trees, sometimes meadows, lakes and of course.. many mountains 🙂 Most pullouts and viewpoints were at the other side of the road (we’ll do most of them on our way back), but we stopped at a viewpoint across the Crowfoot Glacier and took a short hike to the Peyto Lake viewpoint where you look down on once again a bright blue lake! It was pretty cold there and we even got a few tiny snowflakes!! Again many tourists there and a couple of Japanese girls even wanted to be in a picture with us, haha! Those places aren’t very secluded, but you meet a lot of real nice people this way. We also drove past Bow Lake and the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge, the Waterfowl Lakes (walked down to the shore of the Upper Waterfowl Lake) and hiked down to the Mistaya Canyon. That was again very impressive, the river squeezes itself into a narrow canyon with a lot of power! The water has carved its way through the limestone, going deeper and deeper and leaving the rocks sculptured to impressive forms and shapes. A while later we passed the Weeping Wall (water falling off the cliffs in several small streams), the viewpoint after the Big Bend where you can look down on the Icefields Parkway in the (there fairly narrow) valley (gorgeous!!!) and soon we arrived at the Columbia Icefield, the place where the Atabasca Glacier comes real close to the road! Very impressive to see, but we didn’t desire to go on it, we wanted to find the campground there. It was the only one halfway on that route to Jasper that would be open. Well, it turned out to be the parking lot where you’re allowed to stay overnight for 8 bucks. Even though Nico was kinda tired from the driving, we didn’t feel like staying there and decided to drive on to the Whistlers campground near Jasper. Another 100 km! Pfff….. Luckily it went quick (we didn’t stop much at viewpoints and falls, we’ll do that on the way back) and finally at 6 or so we arrived at Whistlers! Unfortunately only unserviced sites were still available, but we went out to a diner close by (at the Jasper House bungalows) for a delicious dinner (the nice waitress turned out to be from Saskatoon) and went to bed early – only thing we missed was the furnace. You can run it for a short time on the battery of the car, but we didn’t bother. ZZzzzzzZzzZzzzzz….

Sept. 14th – Jasper

First of all happy birthday to Sped! I’m sure we’ll have a beer together when we get back to Regina 🙂 But for now, we’ll stay in the Rockies a bit more, if you don’t mind 😉 Back to the campground stuff: Nico went to the office before 9 to stand in line to get a full hook-up site for the next three nights. We moved to the new spot (again a very pretty site in the forest), and our main goal for today was: RELAX! At home we say: aankuttelen 🙂 We plugged everything in, had our first shower in the motorhome (and my dog, did I need one!), took time for breakfast (or rather, brunch hehe), catching up on typing all this and gathering laundry. We saw some elk on the campground, there’s a herd walking around the area and I heard that the bull has been misbehaving a bit before. Today we saw some cows with one bull, don’t know if it was the same one, but he was big! I first thought it was a horse I saw through the trees! We didn’t go too close, but Nico took some good pics with his camera.

Now (afternoon) we are in Jasper for some shopping, laundry and internet access. In the same place even, Coin Clean Laundry – nice combination (laundry-internet-coffee)! 🙂