Jasper National Park

Today we continued our drive through Banff and Jasper Parks.  We stopped at Lake Louise.  It is heralded as one of the most scenic areas in the park.  It did not disappoint.  The beautiful emerald green water stretched to the base of a mountain blanketed in heavy white snow.  Hundreds gathered along the shoreline for group photos.  Others just stood looking in awe.

Lake Louise

Shortly after leaving Lake Louise, we turned on to Rt 93 for the trip up through Jasper National Park.  Jasper has a whole different feel than Banff.  It is wild and remote.  Little traffic is on the highway.  We saw moose, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and a black bear ran across the road right in front of us.  We saw more wildlife here in a few hours than we did in Yellowstone in two days.

This is a spectacular park.  You can only take so many photos of stunning snow capped peaks, mountain streams and emerald colored lakes.  Around every bend in the road is a new vista more stunning than before.  Small glaciers hang from many peaks.

Crow's Foot Glacier

  

We stopped at the Columbia Icefields.  There you can walk right up to the base of the Athabasca Glacier.  Words cannot describe this experience.  Our Glacier National Park has a few of the small glaciers like you see on many of the peaks here but it does not have what I would call a real glacier.  Athabasca fits the description perfectly.  

Athabasca Glacier

We continued on through Jasper the rest of the day.  After leaving the park in late afternoon we turned on to Rt 40 to Grand Prairie, Alberta.  The road is very good most of the way.  You are in remote woodlands.  Logging is the major industry in the area.  Little signs of habitation are evident from the highway.  You really feel alone in the world.

We stopped to watch a cow moose with her calf munching grass along a stream.  Darlie got some good close up video.  

Jasper Highway View

We made our camp in a municipal campground in Grande Cache, Alberta.  This small town was the site where the trappers in the early 1800s would store their beaver pelts until they could transport them out for sale.  They build stilt structures to store the pelts in.  They were called caches in French meaning a storage place.  It is raining tonight.  We feel cozy and warm in the old bread truck while listening to the rain on the roof.

Purple Vetch

I have to say at this point, driving to Alaska is the greatest RV adventure of all time.  This can’t be beaten anywhere in the world. The northern Rocky Mountains are beautiful beyond description.  I can only imagine what the next few weeks hold for us as we explore the great north country of Canada and Alaska.

My Relief Driver