Month: November 2014

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Jasper 2014, day three

Woke up to a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. We enjoyed our complimentary breakfast and headed off to go to the Jasper Skytram. We soon ran smack dab into the height of tourist/construction season.

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All we could see was traffic for miles. We had noticed the construction the day before but there had been virtually no waiting. We sat here for about 15 minutes and then moved up about 30 car lengths for our next “rest.”

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The line kept growing behind us too. After about an hour the douchbag in the red car pulled out and passed a bunch of us. I was so hoping there would be a cop around to see that, but no. And I was equally disappointed when I didn’t see that piece of crap all smashed up along the highway when we finally cleared the construction. Our plan of heading up the mountain late in the morning was pushed back by the hour and a half we sat in traffic.

As we approached the parking area at the Skytram it was pretty busy and there were a lot of people walking around. We parked and headed towards the line-up. The line moved pretty quickly and we got to the front in no time at all. Once there however, we were told we would board in an hour and a half. So it took me 4 hours to get from my hotel to the top of the mountain. Looks like we aren’t doing much today. We hung around in the sun at the departure area waiting for our “flight.”

When it was finally our turn we crowded into the tram and set off up the mountain and were at the top of the ride in no time at all.

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Once we got there and went outside into the sunshine we could feel a cold wind blowing but it was warmer than it had been so far on our trip. We walked around the short board walk and looked up the trail towards the top of the mountain when Lynda said, “Just so you know, I’m not going up there.” She was still feeling the effects of our previous day’s hike and my hips were sore from the trek so it didn’t break my heart not to climb higher. Years and years ago my dad took us kids up there so I have seen it, but Adam still hasn’t been. I guess that’s an excuse to go back.

So, we took that opportunity to have some lunch. While lunch was good, it did feel a bit like going to dine in a fancy restaurant; had to wait to get in and paid more than it was really worth. But it was nice to eat out as a family.

After we ate we went back out to wander around the boardwalk a bit before heading down.

We took a few photos and headed back down.

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I liked the way the trees “rushed up” at is as we descended the mountain.

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This is almost at the bottom and the end of the line.

We headed on east towards the Miette Hot Springs. The road there is all twisty and narrow – I loved the drive.  In all our travels to Jasper we have never visited the hot springs. We found out that it is the hottest hot springs in the Canadian Rockies. I didn’t find it too hot to be though so it was all good. I didn’t try the cold pool – I liked being comfortable. We lounged around there for a little over an hour before heading back to Hinton for the night. With that our Jasper vacation was over. Even with all the tourists around it was a very enjoyable and relaxing time.

 

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Jasper 2014, day two

Friday morning dawned windy and cold, not that we noticed so much in the trees of the campground mind you. I have never slept so well camping as I did in that Yurt. Other than the usual middle of the night bathroom visit I slept through till 9:30 am. It was just so quiet and comfy that the rising sun didn’t wake us up. Check out is 11 am but we were hard pressed to get out by noon. It was fabulous. I’m pretty sure that is going to be how we camp from now on.

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It’s so quiet with all the neighbours gone.

We drove through the town of Jasper and headed over to the Jasper Park Lodge. We drove into the lodge and then headed over to Lake Edith and Lake Annette. The trail to Lake Annette looked inviting so we tried it. It’s only a couple of hundred yards to the lake from the parking lot and we could feel the wind blowing, but when we got to the lake shore it felt like a cold, cold hurricane was blowing.

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A windy day at Lake Annette

I’m pretty sure there were whitecaps on the lake, but since my eyes were watering from the wind I couldn’t really tell. The walk to the lake took longer than the time we spent there. Wasn’t much to see with all the cloud cover anyway so we decided to move on.

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Lynda and I took this drive and walked up to the lake years ago but she didn’t remember doing that. Once we got to the end of the road I realized that the road was different than the first time we went.

The parking area is different than I remembered and the trail slopes gently down for a couple of hundred yards before making a turn and dropping steeply down to a bridge.

 

After you cross the bridge it is quite a steep climb up the other side. Once you reach the top it’s a gentle climb as you walk, but it is a constant uphill. Being cloudy and cool out made for nice hiking conditions. Lynda carried here camera bag and never took a single photo. She forgot to bring water even though she always travels with some.

Lynda was getting pretty tired and felt that we saw a lake and that was good enough. I persuaded her to keep going. We walked a few hundred yards more and she gave up and sat down to rest while Adam and I went off to find Celestine Lake. I think we went all of a couple hundred feet and saw this.

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Adam and I walked another couple hundred feet and found the lake. Laughing I went back to get Lynda so she you say she made it all the way.

 

Now it was time to walk the 6.8km and approximately 1000 foot drop back to the truck. Soon Lynda’s lack of water caught up with her as she started to experience leg cramps. We walked slowly and rested often. She said that downhill was harder at that point than uphill. I never take water with me, I know, I know but I just never do so to me it’s  no big deal but it was pretty hard on her.

 

I can almost always find an excuse to stop but since I walk faster than Lynda she often walks ahead and even with doing small projects like the feather I catch up pretty easily.

I stopped a few more times to take some flower photos. Lynda kept a pretty steady pace going albeit a slow one, but steady none the less. I really liked the light I was getting from the cloud cover.

With the bridge in site it was only a kilometer or so back to the parking area.

Lynda was hurting at the end but she did the whole distance and I was so proud of her. I think we’ll have to do some more walking so that will be easier next time.  After she go through getting some water into her it was time to head out.

The road in/out is one way each hour as it’s so narrow and twisty. I loved the drive. It was the best part of the driving that day. We headed into Hinton to check into our hotel and get some supper and planned to be back in the park fairly early Saturday morning.

 

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Jasper 2014, day one

Booked my summer holidays months in advance but only planned to go somewhere about 2 weeks before my time off. We decided on camping in Jasper. The only problem was we no longer had a tent. I did some digging and found out that you can rent Yurts in the National Parks. Because I had left it so late all we could get was 1 night. I booked it and decided we could just stay in a hotel in Hinton for 2 nights so we could spend 3 days in Jasper.

Lynda really wanted to see the Jasper Skywalk so we made that our first stop of the trip. When we got to the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discover Centre the parking lot was pretty full. We walked up all the stairs and into the building and it was also pretty full, but we stood in a short line for tickets and were told to stay to the left on our way down the hall. As we walked past a very, very long lineup Lynda was worried we had hear wrong but we soon saw a doorway with “Skywalk” written above it. We walked on through and into an area with some empty busses sitting idle. As we walked through the maze to get to a bus the driver laughed and told us we were making him dizzy. He opened the bus as we got to it and we boarded a totally empty bus.

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View of my ticket from near the back of the bus.

After about 20 more people got on the bus we were off for the 5 minute drive to the Skywalk. The huge line up was for the “Glacier Experience.” I don’t know how long the people in that line waited to get on the Glacier but I think we were done at the skywalk before they all got there.

We stayed a little over an hour at the skywalk enjoying the sunshine while looking at the mountains before we set of towards our campsite.

We did have to pass Athabasca Falls along the way however so it was time for stop number 2.

Dodged other tourists for about an hour and moved along towards our campsite. Still hadn’t seen much for wildlife.

Was cloudy and cool when we pulled into the Whistler Campground. We got supper made and soon after it started to spit rain so we retreated indoors. Was nice to be able so sit upright and have a table to play cards on. Even had an electric light overhead. All in all it was a very comfortable camping experience.

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I did notice a power skunky smell after I beat my wife and son handily at Cribbage. Since I had planned to do some night photography it gave me a good excuse to get out into the fresh air.

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Once I got outside I was too cold and tired to set up my tripod to try some cool night shots. I hand held my camera and it shows. I am a lot more fair weather photographer than I care to be, but I remember freezing my ass off in the film days shooting stuff like this. Since it was dark and cold it was time for bed.