Jasper the bear, the town mascot
So we headed up the Ice fields parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper and got a site out at the Whistlers campground about 3K south of Jasper. Big place, almost 800 sites but only 177 with electricity. Again, only 1 of 2 campgrounds in the entire park that had showers so it’s popular. No luck getting power, they’re booked way in advance so we roughed it in an unserviced site. Luckily It was actually one of the nicest spots we’ve had in a park in a while!
The trailer battery lasted us about 3 days but during that time Dave finally got the solar panel up and running. Still got a few bugs to work out (might need your expertise Jon!) but it was enough to charge up the battery so that the water pump and propane furnace would work. Good thing because it was freaking cold! Can’t say we had the best weather this week but kept us moving.
So what did we do? Lots!
Just driving around was an adventure in itself. Wildlife all over the place. In addition to the grizzly we saw in Banff, we also saw 2 small black bears and one larger one. That all happened on the drive to the Bald hills hike at Maligne Lake.
This hike was 10.4 K return and elevation gain of 500m. We managed to get to the top of the one Bald hill (a small rounded mountain) but at just that time, Mother Nature decided to add some cold rain to the already wicked wind she was blowing at us. Perfect! So much for the beautiful views of the lake we were supposed to get...all we wanted was to get the hell off the top and get warm. So took a few pictures to document the accomplishment and went back down as fast as we could. Of course, as soon as we find a sheltered spot to eat lunch the sun comes out. At least we got some half decent views from fairly high up.
One the way back we saw another family of big horn sheep and our first and only deer. Pretty happy with the animal sightings that day. Check out the ALBUM!
The other big hike we did was to the Glaciers at Mt Edith Cavell. You can actually see this Mt from downtown Jasper. This hike was almost 9K return and 500m elevation gain. Seems to be just about right level of difficulty for us to do in half a day. I can’t even begin to describe what it felt like to be sooooo close to ice in the middle of August. It’s impressive. Again, mother nature decided to be a bit of a bitch again and gave us cold, drizzly weather, right when we got to the top of this trail. #$%%@! COLD! But at least our efforts were rewarded with a rare sighting of a caribou at the top. We could just see the outline of it at the top of the ridge but even with my small digital camera, I was able to zoom in and then crop the picture and it came out pretty good!
Along the hike we saw lots of golden mantle ground squirrels and one kept up with for quite a while so we nick named him “the guide”. They look like big chipmunks and they’re pretty fearless.....and many more Hoary Marmots, they sure seem to like the sub alpine terrain.
Some of the most unique scenery we’ve seen on our travels came during this hike and pictures speak louder than words so check out the Glacier ALBUM.
Between these 2 harder hikes we took it easy to let the legs recover. Spent some time at the Miette Hot springs and compared to Banff, much nicer setting and a lot less touristy. Soaking in a pool of 104 F outside on a cold day in the middle of mountains is the best thing ever! On the way back, at the side of the road, just strolling along was the biggest elk yet. 6 points on his rack and it was close enough to the truck that I could have stuck out my hand and touched it!
We also drove to Mt Robson Provincial Park just across the Alberta Border into BC. It’s the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies and it’s impressive. On the way back to Jasper we saw another elk that beat the one from a few days ago. It had 8 points (the most they can get) and it was just massive. We were in awe! We met some people on the Glacier hike the next day that said they were in Jasper that same day for dinner and a huge elk was just walking down the sidewalk right downtown. Bet it was the same one...he was definitely out to show his big self off!!!
The drive to and from Jasper on the parkway is a trip in itself, there’s so many places you can stop and camp, hike or just look. The scenery is amazing and then of course there’s the Columbia ice fields to gawk at. We got a big surprise on the drive back south from Jasper...we got to see mountain goats! They’re pretty rare to see along the road, they usually keep higher up in the mountains. Biggest animal jam yet! At the side of the road was a Mom and baby. Couldn’t believe it! To get a good picture though, we did the thing they tell you not to do, we got out of the truck and walked up right close to it. I know, stupid tourist. Then as we were walking back to the truck, 3 more crossed the road. So 5 in all!
So our animal sighting total in the mountains is impressive but the one thing I really wanted to see in the wild was a moose! So far they seem to be the most reclusive of all the antlered ones. Maybe we’ll see one on our travels east.
Check out the rest of the Jasper Pictures!