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Whistler’s Campground, Jasper, Alberta, Canada. Odometer – 6963

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Today we completed the drive up Icefields Parkway to Japser the town. I started the day early with a hike to Wilcox pass. The hike began from the campground and went up to a long and wide alpine meadow between Wilcox Peak and Nigel Peak. The views just before entering the meadow were awesome. It was early morning, good light and I saw the Athabasca and a few other Glaciers to the west. A ranger told me that when the snowy peaks have a burning orange tinge to them in the sunrise minutes, it is called alpen glow.

I walked through the meadow passing snow, mud, puddles, icy pools, creeks and ponds, multitudes of wildflowers and not a single mammal, human or otherwise in sight. The hike lasted 12km one way, and ended at Tangle Creek Falls right on the Icefields Parkway. It was 8:45am and I needed to get back to the RV, 12 km away. After holding my thumb up for half an hour, a car with 2 young Belgian brothers picked me up. They were nice enough to drive me all the way to the campground.

Paola and the kids had just gotten up. We got prepared for the day, and started off with another visit to the Icefield center, to see some of the glacier exhibits. From there we drove to 2 must-see waterfalls on the highway. Actually it is Paola that drove! For the first time since we rented the RV 2 months ago. And she did a great job.

The first fall we visited is Sunwapta falls, and the second is Athabasca falls. Both were very voluminous, and very crowded with tourists. I was much happier with the smaller lonely Tangle Falls from earlier in the morning.

At Athabasca falls we walked a bit on the interpretive trail, including a walk through a canyon that was once the path of the water until a better route was formed nearby.

We reached Japser town in the early afternoon on a hot day, 35 centigrade. After checking in to the campground we drove into town for groceries and laundry. On the main street we saw cars stopped and looked to the right of the road at the forest’s edge. Several bull elks were eating. One of them had the largest pair of antlers we ever saw. Lucky guy come mating season…

After a quick photo session, we drove further into town. Orr and Shir were tired from not napping enough on the way. Paola and I were sweating like pigs, and it was impossible to find a parking spot close enough to the Laundromat and supermarket. After several loops around, our luck improved and we parked right in front of the supermarket.

The laundry was next door so we put the clothes in the washers ($5 a load – new record) and went shopping. A small supermarket but at least it had good produce. We and the kids eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, and that was missing from our diet in Banff and Lake Louise.

After taking care of business, we stroller around a bit in the shade and then had dinner in a restaurant called Evil Dave’s Grill. Food was good. It was 8:30pm and finally the heat let up a bit. We found the local elementary school and a good playground out in back. The gate was open so we took the kids in for some fun. We stayed for over an hour, finally breathing cooler air. The only bummer is the huge amount of mosquitoes everywhere. You really need to spray yourself with DEET everytime you get out of the RV.

At the playground we met a local woman with her small kids. She told us about life in town, how cold it gets in the winter, how everyone knows everybody here (only 3000 permanent residents). She showed us Old Man Mountain, a mountain ridge that looks like an old Indian laying on his back looking at the sky. No tourbook had anything on that.

Now back in the campground. Good Night,

-Hemi

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Alberta, Big Trip, Canada, North America RV 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.