August 20, 2014
Today we awoke to rain. Not a hard
rain but rain. It was not cool this morning. It was COLD with an
morning temperature of 37. It rained most of the day, quite hard at
times. We did see a little sun as we were leaving Jasper, but that
was very short lived.
Back to last night. A bear ran across
the road in front of us as we were going back to the campground from
posting yesterday's blog. It appeared to be a small black bear but
it was too dark to know for sure. While we were in Jasper we saw a
golden eagle, 2 mule deer, 1 bear, 3 elk and a precocious chipmunk.
Certainly not near the wildlife we saw last time we were in Jasper.
As we were leaving today we discussed our visit this time and decided
we really did enjoy our campground and it is a beautiful area.
However, if we ever return here we would return in the spring/early
summer like we did last time. We missed all the beautiful snow and
frozen lakes that we saw on our last visit. In addition the August
crowds are a pain.
From Wabasso we drove the Icefields
Parkway to Lake Louise, Banff and then on to Walmart in Okotoks,
Alberta. We crossed Sunwapta Pass elevation 6,667 and Bow Summit,
elevation 6,849 the first and second highest points on the Icefields
Parkway. We actually stayed above a mile high most of the day. We
were also above a mile high yesterday at Maligne Lake. Yes, we can
feel the elevation when we hike. Even though we have been in
Alaska/Canada all summer we haven't been at those elevations near all
the time and have not adjusted. The most northerly portion of the
Icefields Parkway needs work. They need to use some of the money
they charge people to drive this road to work and smooth it out. At
times it is like a paved washboard for miles. The Icefields Parkway
is known for all the beautiful glaciers, glacier lakes and streams
that can be seen in that area. It was pretty today but the views
were often obscured by the clouds and rain.
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| Look closely and you will see one of the big Ice Explorer vehicles on the glacier |
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| Recent burn area |
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| Fun drive |
We stopped at Lake Louise but there was
no parking available for RVs at the visitor center. All the lots
were full. Then is started raining again. Since we already have
pictures of the Lake and the Chateau Louise we decided to just move
on down the road. Having tea at the Chateau would have been fun, but
not worth the trouble in the rain and all the people. We also
bypassed Banff because it was pouring rain to the point. If we had
found a safe place to pull off the road we would have stopped. Since
we never found a safe location we just slowly drove on. Again, we
have been to Banff and didn't feel we had to visit again. It is
really the scenery and hikes in these area that are the real draw for
us and the weather just didn't cooperate today. One of the things we
had forgot about the drive around Banff were the wildlife bridges.
There are fences along the parkway in the area to try to prevent the
wildlife from getting on the roadway and causing accidents. So to
allow for the animals to to cross they built the wild life bridges.
We have never seen animals on the bridges, but the authorities have
wild life cameras on the bridges and say the animals really do use
the over passes. We would still like to see that for ourselves.
As we have be traveling south we have
been glad to get some things back that we had been missing. We now
have satellite radio back. We can now listen to the Rockies games
again. Missed baseball this summer. We may have satellite TV back,
but we haven't reactivated the receiver yet to find out.
That is about it for today. Tomorrow
will be another travel day and we are expecting another rainy day.
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