The drive is pretty simple, straight out of Banff onto the Trans Canada Highway and then merge onto the 93 Icefields Parkway and that's that. Now we knew that if we were going to see wildlife on our trip, it was probably going to be on the Parkway. Well we are now pros at spotting bears. We saw one grizzly and two black bears on the way in, and one grizzly on the way out. It was our first real sighting of a Grizzly bear which was pretty cool, the last one was nice and close to us as well so perfect photo opportunities.
We stopped off at Peyto Lake on the way. It's just a short hike from the parking lot and the view is beautiful. The lakes here are all pretty stunning as the water is just so blue, so that combined with the fact that the lake is shaped like a fox made for a rather cool view. It was also the perfect opportunity to use the selfie stick that Halie and Fabian got me for my birthday! (Thank you guys!)
About an hour before you hit Jasper is the Icefield centre which is where you can do the Icefields experience and the Skywalk. We had both of these on our Banff ambassador cards so we got to do them for free, which after we did them I was very happy about. Let's just say if we had paid over $80 each, which is the retail price, we'd have been pretty miffed. So the Icefields adventure takes you up to the Athabasca Glacier, which is a pretty cool thing in itself to be standing on a glacier, but when you get there in reality it is like you are standing on a icy covered parking lot. It's really not that great, you can't do anything other than wander round the area in a circle and get back on the bus. It's definitely a tourist fad. We did however get to see some big horn sheep with their tiny baby sheep which was something new and cute and lovely, so there was a small perk. The skywalk was marginally better, purely because of the beautiful views, and directly below our feet were some mountain goats running around. Another animal to tick off of the list.
After grabbing a coffee and a bite to eat, we carried on our journey up the Parkway and stopped off at the Athabasca Falls. This was one place that we were strongly advised to go and check out during our time in Jasper, and it was pretty awesome. Just a little fact for you here, Athabasca Falls is the most powerful waterfall in the Canadian Rockies! See, we learnt things too!
We decided to be savvy with our money and stay at Whistler's campground which is just outside the town of Jasper, so nice and convenient. We had a nice little pitch in the sunshine with a bench and a fire pit, so we quickly set up the tent and headed into the town to grab something to eat and have a wander around. It's so similar but so different to Banff. There's lots of tourist shops and pubs, surrounded by mountains and bike trails, but it is SO quiet, which is a welcome relief from the bus load of tourists that have descended on Banff. After eating we went to one of the many tacky souvenir shops, bought a pack of cards and headed back to the tent. Danny taught me how to play "Shithead", so I now know two card games, well done me. It was bloody freezing so we took cover under the five blankets and had an early night as we had a lot to get through the next day.
Bright and early we packed up camp, headed into town to grab some breakfast and pick up a little picnic for lunchtime. We were recommended a little sandwich shop called Patricia's Street Deli where they make sandwiches to order. I had a turkey, cranberry, goats cheese salad one and it was so so good, so much better than having to buy a generic packaged sandwich from the supermarket. So with food in our bag we headed off to Maligne Canyon. The guy in the sandwich shop recommended that we park at 6th bridge and hike to the canyon rather than going to the crowded parking lot with the rest of the tourists, so we did just that. We decided to cycle the trail as we were on a tight time frame and it was around 6km each way. Obviously when it started to get very rocky and off path I gave up and just walked as briskly as possible behind Danny who was of course, in his element. It is a really lovely trail along the river and it was nice just to take in the views and be somewhere different - the sunny weather added tremendously to the experience also.
That ticked off the list, we jumped back in the car and onto Maligne Lake. I really wish we had more time in the day as I would have loved to have gone canoeing or in a paddle boat here as it was such a beautiful day and the people who were doing various water sports looked to be having so much fun! As it was we just sat on the side of the Lake, enjoyed our lunch and got back into the car to go and check out the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. It's nothing compared to the Fairmont Banff Springs but being settled right on the side of Lac Beauvert is pretty impressive. There is a really lovely, very flat trail all around the Lake which is a nice relaxed wander, and again more water activities to try. We lay and sunbathed for a little while on the famous red chairs that you see everywhere around here and made our way to the next destination. Sunwapta Falls.
This was the last place that we had been recommended to go check out. We were told that this time of year is the best time to go as the might of the water is so much better due to the glacial melt. They weren't nearly as impressive as the Athabasca Falls, not by half, but still a waterfall is a waterfall and they are so cool to just sit and look at.
And that was our trip done. We stopped off at Bow Lake on the way back just because it was so beautifully sunny and the Lake was so blue and divine, and that was that, we were very sleepy and homeward bound. It may not sound overly exciting when written down but the pictures will give you a little insight into just how lovely Jasper is and how much of a great time we had. We will definitely be going back in the near future and trying to get done all the things that we unfortunately missed out on this time.
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