After a slightly slower start we were away by 9.30 having dumped grey water and filled up with fresh water. This is a daily chore, but the camp sites have efficient sani dump stations and the van is easy to service in comparison to others we had in NZ.
We went into Jasper, seeing a bull elk on the way, and found the Robinsons supermarket which had everything we needed. We had a walk around the town, checked the weather forecast at the information centre and eventually found a place for coffee with free internet! Our Fraserway wifi hotspot has been eating megabytes, and we are not sure why. At the beginning of the trip it seemed easy to measure how much we were using, but yesterday it seemed to have a mind of its own, so now I have unplugged it, and will just plug it in when we want to use it!
Jasper seems to be full of mountain gear shops, gift shops and restaurants and cafes..and a couple of every expensive laundromats........we are staying dirty, apart from smalls which I have washed by hand! None of the Canada Park campsites have washing machines, which I find very surprising. Camping in the Parks is very controlled, you have to use one of their camp grounds, there are no commercial ones and no freedom camping allowed.
The expedition for today was the Jasper Tramway which is a cable car which "flies" 10005m ( over 3,000ft) up the Whistlers mountain. We blew about £50 for the two tickets for a seven and half minute ride to the viewpoint station. From there it was an hour's walk, to reach the top at 2,463m summit, which is just over 8,000ft. We climbed about 700ft at a steady pace, using the zig zag paths rather than the direct route. The views were fantastic, 360 degrees, including Mount Robson which is the highest mountain in Canada.
We met a couple from Overton near Lancaster and a lovely young couple from Brisbane. Very few people made it to the actual Whistlers Summit, most stopping at the first 'top', which of course, is never the actual top!!!
A lovely sunny day, chilly with a frost first thing, typical good autumn weather. It was a bit hazy though and some views at the summit were straight into the sun, so not as good as yesterday for photographs.
Wildlife today: Bull elk, Hoary Marmots at the cable car station, and ground squirrel here on the campsite.
Another good day!
Wednesday
Maligne Canyon, Medicine Lake, Maligne Lake today.
After the usual chores and visit to town, which I won't bore you with, we drove to the Maligne Canyon. This is definitely the deepest river gorge I have ever seen, so deep that at times you can't see the water below. The water has cut through the limestone creating amazing shapes. We walked downstream, Michael to bridge no 5, I didn't go quite as far. The gorge chang; springs and underground streams from the lake further up the valley join the river at various points, it widens out and runs into more falls; a real picture all the way down, but not that easy to photograph.
A spring joining the main river
From there we drove up the road to Medicine Lake where we stopped for some lunch. This lake was very low, in fact only the lower quarter was actually a lake. At the top end grass was growing on the lake bed, so maybe it is only fully a lake during the Spring snow melt.
Medicine Lake
It was a lovely sunny warm day, so at lunchtime we broke out the tshirts and shorts and applied some sunscreen!!!!
Then it was onwards and upwards up the road to the famous Maligne Lake, which is beautiful, we were then ableto identify the snow capped mountains we had seen as we drove up.
We walked along the lake path to a viewpoint and back again. We are walking miles every day, and today I was feeling a bit tired, however I did 4 miles in total plus campsite and town stuff.
The drive today was stunning again, with autumn colours, backed by dark green conifers, high mountains, some were shear rock faces, others snow capped..... and sunshine!
Wildlife seen: Elk on the way into town, and a squirrel
Total km: about 105.
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