Day 35–Saturday—7/18: Drive from Jasper to Athabasca Falls, Icefield (Athabasca Glacier Toe of the Glacier hike), Peyto Lake overlook, Waterfowl Lakes Campground, campfire. (Accidentally checked out early from Jasper).

 Warning:  The beauty in the Canadian Rockies is so spectacular that we’re posting more pictures than normal J.

We’ve already driven 2,157 miles from La Crescenta to Jasper via CA, OR, WA, British Columbia and now Alberta.  Although we’re going to Lake Louise and Banff for 9 nights, this does actually begin our southward return trip heading back south to the US and to LA.   We drove to Athabasca Falls to show Denise the best waterfalls in the Jasper area.  We all enjoyed them.  Then we continued south on the Icefield Parkway to the Columbia Icefield and the many glaciers there.  We did the 1.5 mile hike called the Toe of the Glacier trail which leads you to the base or toe of the Athabasca Glacier.  It’s gorgeous to see the glacier—especially the ice cave at the bottom.  We really liked seeing the blue ice in it, as well as watching small chunks of the glacier break off at the cave entrance and splash down into the glacier river at the toe of the glacier.   It’s too dangerous to actually climb on the glacier without experienced guides because of hidden crevasses.  There were signs all over warning of the danger and describing the last 3 deaths of people who went on the glacier anyway and died of hypothermia in a crevasse.  Sad. 

Sam made a ridiculous mistake today but it ended up being for the better.  Since our trip is so long, we keep forgetting dates and days.  He thought we were supposed to check out and leave Jasper today to head to Lake Louise.  Oops.  We weren’t supposed to leave until tomorrow but we did anyway.  As we were a few hours south on the Icefield Parkway, he pulled out the piece of paper from the Jasper campground that was on the dashboard and asked, “hey, why does this say our checkout day is the 19^th when today is the 18^th”?  That’s when we realized he made the mistake.   So now we had no reservations and were heading south to Lake Louise on a Saturday evening —which was sold-out.  Fortunately, one of our planned stops was Waterfowl Lakes, a campground which takes no reservations and where moose are often seen.  We were in luck!  We found a beautiful spot and so we stayed here for the night for $30 Canadian.   We left the RV in the campground and drove our car 10 minutes further south to see beautiful Peyto Lake.  The trail to the lookout point had many beautiful wildflowers growing alongside it.  The color of peyto lake is a unique, pretty, milky light blue-green.  It’s hard to describe but beautiful.  At one end of the lake is a large glacier where you can see the blue-green glacier water filling the lake.  Off in the distance were more lakes beneath towering cliffs and forests.  We then went back to Waterfowl lakes and walked along a small river to the upper lake looking for moose.  The view of the lake with the clouds and reflections was incredible.  Although we didn’t find any, we all loved this campground. Outside, we cooked cheeseburgers with sautéed mushrooms and onions.  We also made a campfire (they lifted the fire ban due to all the recent rain which lowered the fire danger) and ate smore’s.   We also played Frisbee.  Today was spectacular. 

Our Jasper Campground

Gumby wave at Toe of Athabasca Glacier.

Ice Cave at Athabasca Glacier

We know this sign is sad but we still thought the picture was funny.  We kept playfully warning Ryan. He didn't like it.  

Glacier.  Awesome snow cornice on peak.

July in a bad snow year in the Canadian Rockies!!!  Incredible glaciers on the Icefield Parkway.

Denise, Sarah, and Andrea at beautiful Peyto Lake.  Silty blue green lake.

Family at Peyto Lake with photo bomber behind us :).

Waterfowl Lake when we arrived!

Waterfowl Lake.  Great reflections in the afternoon.

River between the two Waterfowl Lakes.  Rockies in background.

Day 34–Friday—7/17: Jasper: Maligne Canyon, Elk. We met Denise at 5:30 and ate/drank at Jasper Brewery Co. Then we drove to see beavers again.

The highlight of Jasper is supposed to be Maligne Lake but it is still closed due to the forest fire that has been burning right next to it for about 10 days now.   The road was open to Maligne Canyon so we went there.   Wow, over thousands of years, the river here has cut away at the rock.  Today, in a narrow canyon that is only about 5 feet across in places, the river flows over 120 feet straight down in the canyon.  This is incredible geology and impressive to see.  The walk/hike here crosses a series of 6 bridges over the canyon where we marveled at the waterfalls and the force of the river and what it has created over time.  We then drove to Jasper and met our friend Denise who flew up from La Crescenta to stay with us in the RV and explore the Canadian Rockies.   She rented a car from the Calgary airport and drove up to Jasper and dropped off the car there.  We met her and had dinner at the Jasper Brewery Co.   There was a gorgeous double rainbow in the sky as we were walking around Jasper as well.  Earlier in the day we had seen a herd of elk on the Maligne Canyon road so we drove there and enjoyed getting close in our car to the female elk and 3 babies (surprisingly, with no other cars nearby).  Denise told us that she really wanted to see a beaver so we drove to show her the beaver lodge and dam that we saw the night before.  We arrived as the sun was setting and Sarah led us quickly to the same spot we had seen the big one the night before.  Sure enough he was almost in the exact spot.  We got to within 5-10 feet of him and enjoyed watching him gnaw more branches and haul them off with him through the water back to his lodge.   It was great.  We then went home and went to bed for the 2^nd night in a row around midnight.

Family on bridge over 100 ft. tall chasm at incredible Maligne Canyon

Jasper totem pole with rainbow

Maligne Canyon

Maligne Canyon

Athabasca River and Canadian Rockies

Day 33–Thursday—7/16: Jasper: Animals seen: 2 gorgeous redheaded woodpeckers, small herd young bighorn sheep, 1 bear, many beavers, many Elk, 2 deer. Gorgeous mountains, rivers, lakes. Cloudy, drizzly day

We drove east out of Jasper on an animal quest.  We first came across a small herd of young bighorn sheep and their mom right by the side of the road and our car (15 feet away).  They were very beautiful eating grasses.  Occasionally they’d get scared and run about 20 yards.  Then they’d walk back in our direction.  As we continued on the road, we saw a black bear on the other side of the road about 30 yards away.  He was cool but left pretty quickly.  As we drove on, we went to a huge beaver dam and beaver lodge in a pond.  We watched many young beavers continually coming out of the lodge, swimming past us to grasses and sticks they’d gather in their mouths and then swimming back to the lodge.  We loved watching them swim with sticks/twigs longer than their entire body and also seeing their flat tails paddling.  We also liked how they’d do a rolling dive at the end with the twigs in their mouths so they could enter their lodge from underwater.  Then, a HUGE beaver swam out (2 feet long + his almost 2 foot long tail) and swam straight to where Sarah was standing on a boardwalk.  He then climbed out of the pond and went to a large plant.  Sarah was standing less than 5 feet from him and got to watch him use his long teeth and paws as he gnawed off many branches (some 1 inch thick).  As he was doing this, Andrea and Ryan then also got to within 5 feet of him.  He didn’t mind people.  He had such a cute big black nose and large flat black tail.  He climbed back into the water and swam back to the lodge with many branches larger than him in his mouth.  He then dove under and into his lodge.  It was one of the coolest outdoor animal experiences we’ve ever had.  Sam was quite a ways away and missed it.  So we waited a while and then he came out again and went to the exact same place.  We were all waiting for him and all four of us got to see the busy beaver 5 feet away do it again.  During this time, there were many smaller beavers and even muskrats continually swimming back and forth to the lodge.  It was wonderful.  As Sarah stated, “It was one of the best wild animal experiences we’ve ever had!”

On the drive back to camp, we saw a few elk, including one right on the side of the road sprinting full speed about 30 feet away.   We drove alongside him for a long 10 seconds.  Incredible.  We then saw more elk and a few deer too.  We love animals and today was a great day for animal watching!

herd of young bighorn sheep running 10 feet from road

Beaver swimming in front of his dam

Beaver 5 feet from us after gnawing plants and taking them back to his lodge.

Sarah with beaver lodge behind her

Young bighorn sheep eating grasses.

Day 32–Wed—7/15: Jasper: Long Mountain bike ride through forest—partly in the rain--right next to huge elk, rivers, and lakes. Jasper Park Lodge.

 We slept in today.  There is a mountain bike trail that runs through the middle of our large forested campground.  It then connects with other trails that go through beautiful forest along rivers, streams, and lakes.  As we were riding through our campground with Sarah in the lead, she stopped when there were 4 huge elk right in front of us just off the trail.  They didn’t mind that we were there and just kept eating the grasses and leaves off bushes.  We were probably only about 20 feet away from them.  They were huge and beautiful animals—we loved it!  We then continued on along the Athabasca river under towering mountains.  There were dark clouds all around us and we could see rain up ahead on our trail.  So we put on our rain pants and jackets and continued riding next to a small stream and then a few beautiful lakes in the rain.  It was really fun.  But as usual, Andrea and I decided to haul the kids on a trail that was too long for them J.   When we were about 1 mile from our final destination, Ryan was just done (in defense of him, we all have mountain bikes with shifting gears and he has a single-gear BMX bike).   Fortunately, we were only about ½ mile uphill from the 5-star, luxurious Jasper Park Lodge (rooms in the summer high season start at $400 per night).  Built in 1915, the main lounge is stunning, overlooking a lake and mountains.  Ryan wanted to eat lunch here but a hamburger was $39.  So we opted not.   It started to rain more and Ryan was not going to ride anymore.  Our original plan was Andrea or I would ride back through the forest back to the campsite, get the car with the bike rack, and come pick the other 3 up.  But with the rain, and with the trail mostly climbing slightly up hill on the way back, we opted to just take a taxi back to the campsite.  Fortunately, a van came and was able to fit all 4 bikes and all 4 of us!  When we got back to camp, there was a herd of 21 Elk—including adorable babies and males with antlers—right in front of the entrance.   Andrea and Ryan headed back to the RV but Sarah and I rode our bikes to get up close to the elk. They were great to see—especially the babies.  It was fun watching them eat.  They would take the bottom of a branch that had many leaves and put it in their mouth.  Then they’d strip off all the leaves form the branch in one motion as they turned their heads.  All the leaves would end up in their mouth while the branch would snap back and out of their mouth.  Awesome.  It is now raining hard.  We love the sound of the rain hitting the top of the motorhome.   Although a bit loud, it is soothing.  Off to sleep now.

Getting rain gear out--here comes the storm.

Beautiful female elk drinking water 10 feet away.

Sarah loving her bike ride and elk encounter.

more elk next to mountain bike trail.

Day 31–Tues—7/14: Epic day! Elk in the morning, Mt. Edith Cavell, glaciers, iceberg pond, Athabasca falls, Columbia Icefield, Athabasca glacier, all while driving along the scenic Icefield Parkway (we saw a bear too).

 Today was a favorite for all four of us!  This is the best the Canadian Rockies has to offer.  We left early and when we exited the campground, there were 5 large elk right by the side or the road.   They were incredible.  We enjoyed watching them eat and then we drove along the Icefield Parkway—one of the most scenic highways in the world.  There are jagged, huge glacially cut mountains and many glaciers can be seen.  There are rivers and marshes alongside the road and one can see many different animals along the way.  The views are absolutely stunning and awe-inspiring.  We drove to Mt. Edith Cavell and hiked about 1 mile to the overlook of Angel Glacier.  It is a thick glacier with quite a bit of blue ice hanging high on the cliff.  At its bottom is a glacial waterfall feeding Cavell Pond, which is filled with floating icebergs.  We walked down to the edge of the iceberg lake (as we called it) and loved seeing the larger masses of the ice underwater with only the small portion above.   We touched the water, which is just above freezing.  We also touched an iceberg—it was amazing.  The far side of the iceberg lake was a 20 foot+ tall portion of the glacier, also with blue ice.  It would periodically sprinkle and the clouds would blow in and out of the area.  We stayed here admiring the sheer beauty for at least 30 minutes.  The wind started to pick up and it started to blow the icebergs slowly across the lake.  Incredible!!!  Some people even brought their inflatable paddleboards and paddled amongst the icebergs.

From there, we drove to the Athabasca waterfall.  This is a powerful fall that then shoots through a narrow canyon it carved out of the rock.  One can really see the power of nature here.  We walked to many overlooks of the gorge and the falls.  It was sprinkling a little and overcast but beautiful.   

We then continued south on this incredible highway looking for animals and just being stunned by the sculpted mountains and huge glaciers and ice fields on the tops and sides of the mountains—all feeding the river and stream next to the highway.   The drive itself is magnificent—even if you never left your car.  We stopped at a few turnouts to look at glaciers, mountains, rivers, lakes and to look for animals.  Then we arrived at the Columbia ice fields and drove out in a huge 4-wheel drive bus onto the Athabasca glacier.   We loved walking on the glacier—which is thicker than the Eiffel Tower is tall in places.  We were amazed at the glacial river running down the center of it.  We filled our water bottle and all drank the fresh, ice cold glacier water.  We learned that right here is one of the few Triple Continental Divides in the world, where water flows into the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans.  That’s amazing.  We really loved being on the glacier, walking, drinking fresh water, throwing snowballs.   Although it was stormy with thick clouds and rain, when we got onto the glacier, it was partly cloudy/sunny.  

After returning from the glacier, we looked for animals.  We did see one black bear briefly before he went into the bushes.  The drive back was equally as gorgeous as the drive to the ice fields.  We’re excited that we will drive this road again in a few days when we head southeast to Lake Louise and then Banff.  Wow, Jasper and the Canadian Ice field is a must see.  We felt like serious explorers and just loved seeing the many glaciers, walking on one, and also being next to the iceberg lake. 

Wifi is so bad here.  Sorry for the excessive pictures posted on this one and the lack of order.  Here they are.

Athabasca Falls going through narrow gorge

Athabasca Falls overlook.  

Ice Field Center with 4 glaciers behind.

Andromeda glacier

Another beautiful Glacier

Ice bus that took us onto the Athabasca Glacier at Columbia Icefield.  THE TIRES ARE TALLER THAN RYAN.

Andrea with after drinking fresh glacier water.  Look at water flowing behind her shoulder and behind bottle.

Icebergs in Cavell Pond under Angel Glacier at Mt. Edith Cavell, Jasper, Canada

View back from Mt. Edith Cavell towards Jasper.

The iceberg pond was about 33 degrees.  Incredible seeing icebergs floating in pond.

Athabasca glacier and ice stream flowing down it.  See blue ice.

Ryan and Sarah on glacier!

Andrea and Sam on Athabasca Glacier at Columbia Ice fields

Andrea Sam in Canadian Rockies.  Mountains, glaciers and their rivers.

Athabasca falls, Jasper

Andrea and Sarah, Athabasca River and Canadian Rockies

"S-curve" of ice river on glacier

Day 30–Mon—7/13: Drive to Jasper through Mt. Robson Park; saw a bear; bike ride in campground.

We drove about 4 hours today from Clearwater--Dutch Lake, British Columbia to Jasper in Alberta, Canada.  This is the northernmost part of our trip.  The sun was still out at 10:15 pm.  The drive was beautiful, with stunning valleys overlooking forests, lakes, and glacially caved mountains.  We saw a large glacier way off in the Canadian Rockies.  We drove through Mt. Robson Provincial Park, seeing the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies shrouded in clouds and snow.  We also saw (and almost hit) a clumsy juvenile bear running across the highway in front of our car.  Once in camp, we rode our bikes through the beautiful forested bike path.  We found two large, gorgeous woodpeckers with red heads.  We also found a few geocaches.  It rained pretty heavily so we barbequed chicken wings outside under the awning in the rain.  Since it kept raining, we watched the next Harry Potter movie.  Sarah’s excited because she now gets to read the last Harry Potter book.  And then that’s the last 2 movies of the series we will watch.   It was a relaxing day in sheer beauty.

Leaving British Columbia and entering Alberta, Canada

Mount Robson--tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies (in clouds)

Canadian Rockies

Biggest woodpecker we've ever seen, in our campsite in Jasper, Alberta, Canada