August 17, 2014
Today has been a mostly sunny and warm
day. We are currently in Jasper, Alberta, Canada at the Wabasso
campground. We left the Walmart in Prince George this morning after
going to Tim Hortons to check email. Glad we made the drive through
PG on a Sunday morning and not Monday morning rush hour.
The drive was uneventful but we were
also glad we made it on Sunday because most of the construction zones
we idle today. There were a few where they were working. However,
we have had nothing but incompetence, rudeness and frustration since
arriving at Jasper National Park. If we continue to blog now it will
only be a rant. Therefore, we will try to let cooler heads prevail,
not post anything we will later want to change, and we will wait
until tomorrow, post what we hope are some nice pictures we took
today and nice memories of the early part of the day.
Update:
The drive yesterday leaving Prince
George was really nothing spectacular. However, as we started seeing
the Canadian Rockies, we saw snow again. YEA! Snow capped
mountains. Huge snow capped mountains. Beautiful! We saw Mount
Robson the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 12,972 feet. It
towers over the other nearby mountains. Impressive. The Rocky
Mountains, US or Canadian are just so awesome. We stopped at various
rest areas on the drive since we generally only drive about 2 hours
and then take a break and walk a bit. One of the ones we stopped at
had a short hike to Overlander Falls. Very nice water fall and very
few people there enjoying it so we enjoyed it even more.
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| Fog lying in the valleys |
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| Mt Robson |
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| Overland Falls |
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| The forests in this area and many other areas in Canada are being destroyed by beetles |
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| Fall is here, here. |
Shortly after Mount Robson we entered
the western side of Jasper National Park. In Canada there is a daily
park fee just for being in the park – i.e. you can not drive the
Ice Fields Parkway through Jasper and Banff National Parks to get to
southern Canada with out paying this fee. For us for 3 days with the
senior discount this was $49.80 We knew we would have to pay this but
it still seems rather expensive. You can drive thru the park on to
the east toward Edmonton without paying the fee. We really wanted to
avoid Edmonton traffic so I guess we can consider it a toll road. We
checked at the park entrance and were assured there were many
unreserved campsites at Whistler campground where we had planned to
camp. When we arrived at Whistler there was a very long line of RVs
checking in – over 25 in line.
Since we did not have reservations
one of us walked to the kiosk to see if there were empty dry camp
sites for a 36 foot motor home. We were again assured yes it would
not be a problem but we would just have to wait in line to register.
No way to get paperwork to go ahead a fill out to help the process
go faster. By the way – there were 2 lines of RVs. One person at
each window checking people in. There were 5 other people in the
kiosk talking, laughing and doing nothing to expedite check-in
process. We were in the left hand lane. A while later someone came
out and started pulling people with reservations out of the right
hand lane and sending them on to their campsite. Great! Speed up
the slow process. However, they pulled no one out of the left hand
lane. As a result 9 or 10 RVs that arrived after we did, some of
which were larger than us, and did not have reservations, were
processed before us because we were in the left lane. Then when we
finally got to check-in, over 1 hour later, yep – you know where
this is going. They no longer had any campsites for 36 foot motor
homes. No apology. No help at all. Didn't seem to think it was a
problem that order of arrival was not followed. Oh yes, there are
other campgrounds but the one that had a site for us was 20 minutes
further out of Jasper so increases our mileage and time every time we
go in to use wi-fi to check email and post the blog. Also means we
can't ride our bikes to town as we had planned because not only is it
more miles, there is a really tall mountain to climb. Also it meant
that we had to unhook the truck and take Fred into Jasper before
going to the campground because we didn't want to have to backtrack
that far to go get fuel when we leave here. Well it's not over.
Nope just gets better. Finally located a station selling diesel and
waiting in line to fill up. Car in front of us was about to leave
and another car whipped in front of us and pulled to the pump and
filled first. This is the second time this has happened. The first
time it was also a car with Alberta plates. Not that everyone in
Alberta is this way – we have met some nice people from Alberta but
in general they seem to be much more aggressive drivers Riding our
bumper, passing on double yellow lines, and the speed limit means
nothing here. However, since we have seen no enforcement of traffic
laws guess people just do what they please.
Anyway we ended up at our campsite at
Wabasso much later than we planned, hungry and tired. The dry camp
site cost 21.50/night. Once again a bit high for no services in our
opinion. It is a nice campsite and the campground is quiet. We
chose to come here, but this is definitely the worst value for our
dollar of anywhere we have ever stayed. But, even after the
rudeness, high cost and poor customer service we determined that we
would not let any of this ruin our stay here in this beautiful
location.
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