| From Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier
we drove 63 miles north to Whistler Campground in Jasper National Park.
Highway 93 is known as the Icefields Parkway and a Canada National Parks
Pass is required to drive that scenic highway. In the summer a meandering
river flows north to the Arctic Ocean and in winter the water freezes and
stacks on layers. Magnificent mountains, many still snow capped in July,
grace the valley on either side of the highway.
Whistler Campground has 781 sites, but most
are tent sites and there are very few suitable for large rigs. We were
there in 2000 and we found roads with curves so tight our motorhome rubbed
on both sides and it was a challenge to back into our site. So this year
we and the Emonds asked for and demanded BIG RIG sites and we were promised
sites that could accommodate our motorhomes. Well, we got parked and the
site was OK, but it took several tries and all of my skills to back our
41 foot Dutch Star into our site. I got our Little Giant ladder out of
the basement and climbed up and trimmed several limbs so we could extend
our slides and to make exiting easier. Our sites were "no service" or no
hookups and they cost $31 a night.
Jasper and the Tramway The town of Jasper was two miles north of the campground and we found a pub that offered free WiFi for customers so we ordered some brew and chow and adsorbed ourselves (Rich and me) in the internet. We get spoiled when we have internet access 24/7 and this summer in Canada we have to hunt and beg for a computer connection. There are bills to pay online, credit card and bank statements to check, emails to send and receive, websites to update and we love to research campgrounds, highways and places to visit. Add to that very limited television and no cell phones and we feel like we're living in the dark ages. But it does give us the opportunity to read books, watch videos, do hobbies and play games. Another day we found a café that served breakfast and had free WiFi. After breakfast Rich and I surfed the net until 1:00 p.m. giving Diane and Linda ample time for shopping. The Jasper Tramway has two gondolas that
hold 25 people each for trips to the top of Whistler's Mountain at 7,496
feet elevation. ($25 each) It is Canada's longest and highest aerial tramway.
Linda has always feared riding gondolas and ski lifts, but she was a trooper
and made the ride up and down the mountain with no problems. The view from
Whistler's Mountain can be described as awesome or breathtaking, but it
would take several adjectives to describe it properly. The town of Jasper,
5 miles below look small and we could see miles in every direction. We
saw milky rivers flowing from glaciers, blue rivers flowing from springs,
emerald lakes, massive mountains and snow capped peaks. We were above "tree
level" and could easily see the thick forests below and the bare mountain
tops. I have always been amazed that trees grow to a certain elevation
and then cease to go higher, like someone cut off the trees with a gigantic
trimmer and spread tree killer above that line.
Elk Driving out of the campground we spotted
a large heard of elk beside the highway so we stopped at the nearby Athabasca
River for pictures. The large elk crossed the highway to graze while the
younger elk pranced and played in the water's edge. As we were driving
away a Mama elk stopped in the middle of the highway to nurse her young
and all traffic in both directions had to wait until Mama said "enough."
Lakes and Wildlife We wanted to see more wildlife and a drive to two lakes seemed like it should have wildlife and we were not disappointed, but first the lakes. Medicine Lake is a beautiful lake that disappears every Fall and then fills with water every Spring. It is one of the largest disappearing lakes in the world. Maligne Lake, 14 miles long, is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. During the drive we saw two Mama bears and
each had two cubs. They were in the brush and trees so it was hard getting
pictures and we certainly didn't want to leave the safety of the car to
get closer to the bears. Get too close to cubs and Mama will have you for
lunch. But I did finally get one good pictures of a cub jumping on a tree
trunk before it ran into the forest.
We saw a grey wolf walking down the road
so we slowed down and edged up to the wolf and stopped. The wolf paid no
attention to us because its mind was on a ground squirrel we didn't see.
The wolf ran under a bush and emerged with a ground squirrel in its mouth,
then it shook the squirrel and ate it before running away. The wolf was
on Linda's side of the car and she got a great sequence of pictures. It
is bad to see a squirrel lose its life, but it is good to see nature alive
and well.
The Parks and Leaving There are four Canadian National Parks that cover the Canadian Rocky Mountains - Jasper (4,335 sq mi), Banff (2,564 sq mi), Yoho (507 sq mi) and Kootenay (543 sq mi). During our 10 days we visited the first three parks and we spent every night in National Park campgrounds. From Jasper we drove 48 miles to Hinton and spent the night in a Wal*Mart / Safeway parking lot. We needed to stock up on food and, Wow Oh Wow, groceries sure are expensive in Canada. Next we will start on a big loop that will take us 2,300 miles up to Dawson Springs, the beginning of the Alaska Highway, to Watson Lake in the Yukon, down to Hyder to see bear catching fish and finally down to Vancouver, British Columbia. (Please send money for fuel.) |
