Today was our longest drive of the trip – almost 500 km. We left Three Valley Gap at 7:45 PDT and arrived in Jasper at 7:00 MDT. We started out by driving the 20 minutes to Revelstoke for breakfast at Timmies. When we arrived the lineup for the drive thru was almost out to the street and there were about a dozen people in line in the store. It turns out that the town had been without power for a couple of hours and it had only just come back on – perfect timing for our arrival. We had a quick bite and were back on the road heading east in no time flat.
It was a beautiful sunny morning with the mist from yesterday’s rain hanging low around the mountains. We continued along, stopping in Golden for a rest stop and Timmies refill before getting back on the road. One neat thing I learned about my car is that it displayed a tunnel on my Nav Screen when we drove through the snow sheds – it totally messed with head.
Our next stop was in Field at the Yoho National Park Info Centre where we were able to get a map and information about the Icefields Parkway. We walked around the attached park for a while, taking pictures of the Kicking Horse River, surrounding mountains and local magpies before jumping back in the car. Before long we reached the turnoff and headed north towards Jasper.
Our first stop on the Parkway was Hector Lake – it was an unplanned stop, but when I saw all the cars by the side of the road, I just had to stop. It was the beautiful blue that I remembered from my trip out in ’82 and my iPhone captured it perfectly. Mum, however, stayed in the car as she didn’t feel like being as suicidal as I did crossing the highway. (Yes, that’s my car in the picture below).
Next stop was Peyto Lake. This is the lake that I have etched in my memory from my first trip over the Rockies and it was a must-see for me on this trip. We had been told it was an easy 1K walk along a paved path. Yes, it was paved (sort of) and yes, it was 1K. Easy? Not so much. It was a half-decent hike up the side of a mountain that would have been easier to do in runners than flip flops, but we still survived and we were rewarded by a beautiful vista. Mum had memories of very tame ground squirrels so we had brought bread with us – the two squirrels we saw were picky and ignored our offering of leftover focaccia, so I was unable to get any pictures.
Back in the car we went – next stop Saskatchewan River Crossing for gas and a much needed pit stop. We wandered the gift shop but didn’t find anything that spoke to us so we went back out and saw that we were kinda blocked in by an ambulance so I took the opportunity to take some more pictures.
By by this time we were checking the clock and realized that it was going to take us longer to reach Jasper than we had thought so we decided that we would have to limit our (my) stops or we wouldn’t make Jasper before nightfall. That didn’t quite work as planned as I stopped again at Bridal Veil Falls.
I was almost going to forego the Athabasca Glacier until I saw it and then I knew i wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t get some pictures. I am so glad we stopped, even though it was a chilly 9°C before accounting for the windchill. I grabbed some pics and then we headed down the road to see the “toe” of the glacier.
The picture below shows the marker of where the glacier was in 1942. It’s amazing how far the glacier has receded in 75 years.
The view wasn’t as spectacular but I was able to dip my feet into Sunwapta Lake which is fed by the runoff from the glacier. The shoreline was a muddy consistency that was very slippery but felt like liquid silk. The water itself was very close to freezing but I went in up to my ankles anyway – I would have gone in further but was afraid that I would slip and fall on my butt in the frigid water. As I was walking back to the car, the wind on my wet feet felt like daggers piercing my skin, but the bottoms of my feet felt so soft from the mud. Now I understand why people take mud baths.
We jumped back in the car – I turned on my seat warmer – and away we went. 104 km to go to Jasper. Our next and last stop on the Parkway was Sunwapta Falls. As we were pressed for time we only got pictures of the Upper Falls, but it was still impressive for the lack of rainfall this summer. It is a Category 6 waterfall and the word Sunwapta means turbulent water in the Stoney language.
We we finally made it to Jasper around 7 pm – tired and hungry. We checked into the hotel and then I drove around downtown looking for a parking spot which I finally found a few blocks from the hotel. It turns out that most hotels in Jasper don’t have parking lots and you just have to find a spot somewhere on the street or in one of the lots.
After a quick Google search we found out that there were two Food Network restaurants in town. The first one was a bit pricy and chi-chi for our liking but the second one was a pub and the first item on the menu was a pretzel. For those of you who have followed our previous trips, you will remember that Mum loves pretzels so it was an easy choice. The Jasper Brewing Company was three blocks from the hotel so we were also able to walk. We shared a flight of six beers – I had 4, Mum had 2. They have an ISA (India Session Ale) that they brewed for Canada’s 150th – it was coincidentally the 150th Canadian craft beer that I have have tried since I started tracking my beer in the Untappd app. We also shared the pretzel as an appy. Mum had a bowl of their daily soup which was Cream of Chipotle Chicken and I had the Turkey Club with a mixed greens salad. Everything was delicious and beyond our expectations.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Mum went upstairs to the room and I went looking for my car so I could move it closer to the hotel. Luckily I found a spot in the lot across the street. As I was crossing back to the hotel I noticed that I could have parked on the street directly in front of the hotel – oh well.
It is now after midnight, local time, so I will bid you all adieu. Thank you for reading and I will talk to you tomorrow.
L