Jasper, Hot Springs, Wildlife

Wednesday, June 9 -- Today was a great day.  We saw tons of wildlife, beautiful mountains and waterfalls, and even enjoyed the Miette Hot Springs!  The first pix is of the campground woodpile.  You can have fires at some of the camp sites, but it costs $8.00.  However, the wood is free -- you just go pick it up.  Sometimes there are piles of wood at the actual campsites.

We drove around the campground and spotted 4 elk before we headed out for the day.  One of the elk had her baby with her.  The baby is trailing behind, but it is in the picture.  Marilyn saw one who looked like she was ready to birth any day.  We have a better elk pix later, but this is the only elk baby we have seen so far.

We headed for Athabasca Falls first, since we bypassed both falls yesterday.  It was an awesome sight.  The water pouring over it is the same emerald color we keep seeing, although it is mostly white froth.

Cathy, we could have used TCJ instead of TCB for part of my logon--taking care of Joe is pretty much full time.  Onward to the next falls, Sunwapta Falls, still heading south, back toward the ice field.  Another beautiful sight.  This was not as big a falls as the first one, but it had two drops.

Back on the highway, we saw another black bear!!  He was very cooperative, just kept walking right at the treeline along side the road, so Joe just kept backing up to keep up with him.  We got to watch him for several minutes, and you wouldn't want to know how many pictures we took.  But we got a really good picture of him.

We went back into Jasper and stopped at the Visitors Information Center, then headed northeast up Highway 16 to the Hot Springs.  We saw a whole herd of bighorn sheep -- 14 mammas and babies (ewes and lambs, I guess).  We watched them come down this sheer cliff, and we couldn't even see any footholds for them to step to, but down they came.  One stayed on top, maybe as the lookout. 

The weather is constantly changing here, and it rained lightly on us off and on all day.  The clouds move below the mountaintops all the time.  But there are some beautiful mountains, and we are looking at them on every trip.  The views never get old, though.

We saw a deer on the way into the Hot Springs, and another one on the way back out.  They seem the most skittish of the wildlife, so we didn't get a very good picture.

It was 43 degrees when we got to the Hot Springs.  The water in the springs was 103.  It was very relaxing, although it sprinkled on us the entire time.  You can see the steam coming up from the pools.

We had a hamburger on the way back down.  Lunches here, with Joe's 2 beers, run about $35.  We need to eat in the camper more!  Once we got back on the highway, we spotted 4 bighorn rams right beside the road.  They were very cooperative as well, so we got some good pictures of them munching the grass.

Then we came upon a real mess -- 6 of these bighorns in the middle of the road!  They looked like yearlings (for all we know), and I think they were trying to eat the grass in the seam in the middle of the highway.  I was afraid I was going to see bloodshed right there!

Finally, we moved along, trying to get home.  But we made one more stop, when we spotted 3 elk beside the road.  Joe had to make another u-turn to see them well, but they are beautiful animals.

Finally, back at the campground, we took a few pictures since we are pulling out of here tomorrow, heading down Highway 16 to Prince George.  You can see Dave and Mazie's rig next to us, and Collins and Marilyn just beyond them.  This is a very nice park, very wooded.  It has more than 700 campsites, so there is a lot of traffic in and out, but it seems pretty quiet. We hope to make it all the way to Prince George tomorrow, but it's about 230 miles, and that's a bit of a stretch for us old folk.