Date: 1 June 2001 (Friday)

Start: Tunnel Mt Trailer Court, Banff AB

End: Whistlers RV Park, Jasper AB (154 miles)

It was calm for a change and 45f when we got up.

We had a quick breakfast then hooked up and hit the road (Canada’s Transcontinental Highway) north.

After leaving Banff, we found ourselves in between two mountain ranges of the Rockies, with the Continental divide to our left (west). Almost all the mountains still have caps of snow.

Since diesel fuel availability was uncertain, we filled up again at Lake Louise. At that point, we diverged from the Transcon and went north on Alberta 93, the Icefields Parkway. We remained between the two ranges all the way to the campground, a few kilometers short of Jasper.

The mountains here are shaped differently. They are much more abrupt and peaked, not worn down at all. The layering of the rock often shows a 30 degree or more angle toward the sky, illustrating the tremendous force it took to shove these peaks out of the earth.

At one point we came upon a couple of cars with people outside looking through binoculars up a very steep cliff. Dolores quickly did the same and saw a mountain goat scrambling on a ledge.

This part of the parkway follows a river (the Bow) up to Bow Lake (still frozen), fed by the Bow Glacier next to it, then over the summit into another valley going down. That stream then merges with the North Saskatchewan River coming from the north. The Bow and the NS both flow off to the east and Hudson’s Bay. Then we followed the NS up its valley to a summit, over that and into the Athabasca river valley. Both summits are about 6,000 feet in altitude.

There were many small glaciers, the largest and most notable being the Athabasca itself. Even though these are small in comparison to some of those seen on Alaska cruises, they are impressive.

Also impressive is the color of the rivers that stream from the glaciers; it’s a very light blue-green. The rivers are also silty from carrying away the sand carried down by the glaciers.

We arrived at the campground early by design – they don’t have too many sites with electrical power, which we wanted. It turned out not to be a problem, we were ahead of most everyone and the real season here hasn’t yet started. We were warned on checking in that there were many elk in the region and to expect them; also to be aware that one black bear had been seen in the campground.

We drove through Jasper, and out the other end. The map showed a drive up another valley to the southeast to Maligne Lake, a picturesque lake known around about. Another lake, before we got to Maligne is noted for having no visible outlet, yet it’s always fresh and running (it has an underground river draining it). Both were beautiful mountain lakes. On the shore of the first one on the return trip, we spotted a herd of a dozen big-horned sheep resting at the edge of the lake. We also spotted a pair of deer.

Jasper is a tourist and railroad (Canadian National) oriented town. It’s very clean and at this time of the year, populated by a lot of young folks perhaps out of college for the summer. There are hostels all up and down the parkway and in Jasper. We strolled around and looked at things and people. We took pictures of the town, including an old CN steam railroad engine on display there.

Back to the campground. We did a few chores, then sat around. The ground squirrels put on a show for a while.

Then Dolores got an idea to take a picture or two of the campground and was standing at the door of the trailer when she said, "there’s an elk!" And there was one, about 50 feet away. A big one (later found to be normal female elk size, but they’re all big). It was grazing its way along and not paying too much attention to people around it. I took 35mm pictures and Dolores got it with the video camera. It wandered off through the campground, startling camping parties into feverish action with cameras, and disappeared.

Later as we were eating, a group of four female elk came through doing the same thing. We got a few more pictures and marveled at the grace they have as they stride through the woods. Others stirred themselves again for the new show.

We read for a bit, then caught the weather forecast for tomorrow on the only radio station in town (showers possible). Right now it’s 10:19 pm; the sky is still gray and you can see the clouds moving quickly from southwest to northeast (there’s a low south of us).