Canada: The Rockies: Jasper National Park

(post by Colin)

It's 16th June 2011 and so happy to leave Edmonton and head towards the Rockies..  I have heard so many good things.. The day is the 16th June that we left The car was great, the driving was easy...  automatic on long long long long .... stretches of road with no turn offs  for 4 hours...   Only problem is staying awake. There is literally nothing to do - cruise control all the way...

Edmonton to Jasper

It was raining pretty much the whole way on this day - we set off early in the day and the scenery began to get more and more dramatic as we got closer to Jasper National Park. We finally arrived at Jasper itself - which is a small town in the middle of the Park..

View of the mountains from Jasper Town.

We had organised accommodation over the phone before we arrived -  Just a bedroom and bathroom in a house but with a separate entrance.. No breakfast but perfectly adequate and only $60 CAD per night.  Jasper  and the Rockies in general are not cheap - even the camping costs $30-$40 per night..  I had originally thought about hiring a camper van of sorts   - but the price of that with the camp ground fees  made it cheaper to hire the car and get B&B type accommodations etc.. 

We were keen to get started immediately and so we visited the parks office and set off on our first trek..

Preparing for Hiking..

Oh no...

Day 1 PM
Trail Name: Old Fort Point Loop: 3.5km return: 1- 2 hours
Weather: Heavy rain
Bear sightings: None

Bridge:Old Fort Point

Old Fort Point

View:Old Fort Point

Colin at Old Fort Point

These first pics probably don't do it justice but it really was beautiful . This trail was a nice gentle start in terms of distance but  the weather was bad which made it tougher..   We returned to Jasper and our homestead to relax and then explore the town..

Standard Tacky Tourism stuff...

Kizzy first bear encounter..

Colin - first bear encounter..

Jasper town itself is very small and we were only a short walk from the main parade of shops , bars and restaurants..   We only sampled a few of the restaurants here  and overall the costs were extortionate and the cheaper options ( which we went for) not particularly good..  But honestly after a day of hiking pretty much anything tastes good.   But it is not about Jasper the town - it is about Jasper  the park and hiking....

Day 2 AM

Trail Name: Valley of the Five Lakes: 4.2km: 2-3 hours
Weather: light rain giving way to sunshine !!

Bear sightings: None

 So on this trail the weather started to improve pretty quickly and by the time we got to the first lake ( of the 5) the sun had started to creep through which was great - because  each lake is a differen hue of blue green and the sun emphasises this.  Apparently Beavers are around in this area - but we didn't see any !

Valley of the Five Lakes

Valley of the Five Lakes

Kizzy at Valley of the Five Lakes

Day 2 PM

Trail Name: Maligne Canyon: 2.2 km: 1-2 hours

Weather: Sunny

Bear sightings: None

Maligne Canyon is a limestone gorge with water gushing into the gorge from springs along the route..

Colin at Bridge One

Flowing Water

Col & Kizzy

Ice formation.....

Maligne gorge

Kizzy at Bridge 5 Maligne Canyon

Wow - what a day - tired we went back to sample some of Jaspers fine restaurants not ! I think I had literally the worst "mexican" food I have wever tasted..

Day 3 AM
Trail Name: Sulphur Skyline: 8.6km: 5-6 hours

Weather: Heavy Rain

Bear sightings: None

Ok  so this trail is all about reaching  a mountain peak - so uphill all the way.   Kizzy and I thought we were prepared for this one with the previous two days but this nearly killed us ! Visibility was really poor - we managed to get past the treeline on the mountain and I swear we were 20 metres from the summit ( I could not actually see more than a foot ) when we decided it would be sensible to turn back as  the rain was getting worse and we were encased in  this deep fog.  Hardly any photos this day as it was raining so much...

The trail has tuned into a stream !

waterlogged trail

The Harp tree on route !

Sulphur skyline fog...

Sulphur skyline fog - we were up in that !

Kizzy - When will it end !

Day 4 AM
Trail Name: Path of the Glacier Loop: 1.6km: 1-2 hours

Weather: cloudy

Bear sightings: None

Ok - on this day we had a fair few false starts - we got completely lost on the way to this place  and then we had intended to do a 5 hour hike here - but when we got here that hike was closed..   But it did not matter beacuse this hike was really good and we got to get very close to the  Angel glacier.

Angel Glacier description

Angel Glacier

Natural Snow Sculpture

Glacier close up

Col near the Glacier

Kizzy on route to the Glacier

After our run around we were ready to head home to get ready for our departure in the morning..   Part 2 of the Rockies adventure coming up - The Icefields Parkway....

Oh - one other thing - people in Canada have no idea how to park... this is a common sight... lol

lots of love..

Col & Kizzy