Jasper & Ice Fields

Tuesday, June 8.  We took a late drive yesterday evening (5:00 p.m.), to see if we could find any wildlife.  Finally we saw a deer, then another one.  These were white tail deer.


There are lots of ground squirrels, prairie dogs, etc. around.  There are some that pop up every time we go into the campground.  Here's one little fellow, we believe he is a Columbia Ground Squirrel.

Then Tuesday morning we took off toward Jasper.  We were on the road shortly after 8:00 a.m., and we saw two deer right beside the wildlife overpass as we headed out of town.  Good to see they are using them, although Canada has fenced off a lot of these roads to force them to cross at these crossovers.  There were lots of clouds, spotty rain off and on this morning.  Some of the clouds looked like they were smoking.

Everything we have seen in Canada is absolutely stunning.  We are so grateful to have the laptop (thank you, Tiffany and Eric and John and Bridgette).  We have probably taken 1000 pictures already, and it is great to be able to check e-mail, pay bills, and last night we even connected with John on Skype, who was in San Antonio.  We called Tiffany too on Skype, but she didn't answer, so we'll try her again.

It's hard to choose between looking at the mountain tops (which are beautiful) and watching the ground for wildlife.  Just as I said this to Joe, a deer popped up on his side, so I guess we continue to try to do both.  The views just from the RV are spectacular.

There was a weeping wall (where water seeps through the rock into waterfalls) and a bridal view falls we saw from the roadside.  Then we stopped at the Columbia Ice Field, and took a tour bus up to actually walk on the glacier.  But we hit a little snow storm up there, so we didn't stay on the ice very long.


It was freezing cold.  Dave didn't even get out of the bus.  He said that is why he lives in Arizona!



Here is another picture of the glacier.  I didn't even know Canada had glaciers until we started planning this trip.

This drive through Utah, Idaho, and now Banff and Jasper National Parks has been more beautiful than we could have ever imagined.  If any of you want to just take a road trip, I would recommend any or all of this so far.  And we still have thousands of miles to go.

We are staying at Jasper Whistler Park tonight.  The weather cleared and we had dinner outside at the picnic table.  I think that is a first for this trip.  Before dinner, the girls all drove into Jasper to check out the laundramats and the visitor center.  While we were gone, the guys saw 4 elk right in the park. This park is a calving ground for elk because they are trying to avoid predators like wolves, bears and cougars that typically stay out of busy people places like campgrounds.  The elk are "habituated," which means they have lost their fear of people.  However, this campground is also a bear habitat, but we haven't seen any of them.  We got the "bear proof" speech when we entered the park though (no food outside, etc.).

Joe and I went back into town after dinner and did our laundry, which was pretty expensive.  The washers (which they consider "triple") were $5.00 per load, and the dryers were 25 cents for 4 minutes, so I think we spent about $26 (Canadian money) on getting our clothes clean.  The rest of the group are going in the morning.  On our way back from town, we saw 2 deer crossing the highway.