Hinton/Jasper KOA - Hinton, AB

It's the start of our return trip with a stop to do laundry and catch up on our real lives...paying bills, etc....from here it is all South and East.  Just down the road there is a traffic sign which says, "Scenic Route to Alaska" with an arrow pointing north, maybe next time!

Smartphone apps are getting a little scary.  I don't ever remember telling my phone that I really like boardwalks...but there it was...a personal message to me, telling me about the "Beaver Boardwalk" in Hinton, AB.  It's a 3km (that's Canadian for really long) boardwalk that butts up to a residential area.

Jasper NP (Wabasso Campground) (Day 3) -Jasper, AB

Top tram area

When we were in Jasper, thirty years ago, we said, disparagingly, if we got so old that we would find the Jasper SkyTram exciting, "Just shoot us now!."  Well, we sold our souls to the devil! We are so glad we did...well maybe Drex wasn't totally excited about the dog friendly hike.  From the top tram station, it was still another thousand feet to the top.  The clouds kept the sun away, so the temperature hovered around freezing.

In the afternoon, we strolled through Jasper, had lunch, did some grocery shopping,  bought some presents for our house sitters (spoiler alert), and had "tea" at the Jasper Brewing Company.  Deb ordered Nachos...they brought a huge plate large enough to feed four for dinner.

Sunset at 10:30PM

Back to the campground for campfire #2...it's been rainy every evening since we got to Canada, but tonight, it was clear with the sun shining till after 10:30.  We finally had some beef stew about 9:00, once the nachos had settled.  There are no night time campfires because the sun sets at 10:45 and the fire curfew is 11:00.  

Jasper NP (Wabasso Campground) (Day 2) - Jasper, AB

The Red Chairs at Pyramid Lake

Armed with a Jasper NP Hiking Guide, we set out to do a few walks.  First on the list, Pyramid Lake. It's a tiny lake with an island.  You can walk to the island over a little bridge.  Behind the lake is a wooded climb up a hill to a pair of Red Chairs. These are chairs placed on hillsides around Jasper that have tranquil views.  I wanted to sit in all the Red chairs in Jasper, but Deb used the word "obsession"...now I don't want to anymore.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent hiking around Maligne Canyon.  Absolutely fascinating.  A stream that has cut a hundred foot deep gorge through limestone and granite, but the gorge is only ten to thirty feet wide.  The steam is fed by a large cave system and you can see water just gushing in from these cave openings.  And at the top, just when you think it couldn't get any better, there is a tea house serving lunch.

Water from a cave in Maligne Canyon 

In the afternoon we walked along the shore of Maligne Lake, a favorite photographic location.  On the way back, we stopped at Medicine Lake, where the devistating forest fires burned last year, and ate dinner.

Wildlife Count - two bears, two moose, forty caribou, many marmot (it's a Canadian word for squirrel)

Maligne Lake

Jasper NP (Wabasso Campgound) - Jasper, AB

Banff NP, a glacier in the background

We took the same drive we took over 30 years ago from Banff to Jasper.  I asked Deb if she wanted to  revisit any of those nostalgic moments...nope, "Been there, done that...wanna do new stuff!" Okay then.

It was an awe striking drive along the Ice Fields Parkway...seeing glaciers and waterfalls, and canyons cut through bedrock.  We had on again, off again rain all day, and the clouds covered the peaks of the mountains, which made it seem even colder than it actually was.

Jasper NP, Athabasca Falls

We got to Wabasso Campground, just south of Jasper in time for "tea."  I tried to stay outside to enjoy the ambiance, but with the temperature in the low forties, and the drizzle it was hard.  We are far enough north that the sun doesn't start to go down till 11.  The other night we watched a camper pull in at 10:30 and still have enough light to spend 30 minutes getting his camper perfectly level.

Banff NP (Tunnel Trailer Park) (Day 2) - Banff, AB

Top of Sulphur Mountain - Banff, Alberta

Well, we have a full day in Banff.  It's Canada Day weekend, so everyplace is packed with people.  So first on our list is a hearty breakfast.  We decided to bike to town, they said it was only a 10 minute bike ride...yeah, 10 minutes down the hill 30 minutes back. According to a Trip Advisor, the best breakfast place is Melissa's Missteak.  They must make hollandaise sauce in five gallon tubs, the place was packed and everyone was having a Benny (that's what us Canadians call Eggs Benedict).  After biking back (I'm glad that Ded is as out of shape as I am...when she gets to the point of having to walk her bike up the hill, it's about two nanoseconds before I would have quit.  She says, "just go ahead!"...I say, "it's okay, I'll walk with you"

We took the RV to the Sulpher Mountain Gondola, but there was no parking, so we took it back to the campsite and took the bus to the gondola...although there were thousands of people there, it only took about an hour to get to the ride up the mountain....at the top was a boardwalk...we haven't done a boardwalk in months...this one had a total of 300 steps and went right to the top of the mountain.

Bow River - Banff, Alberta

Although we thought about doing dinner in town, there were just too many people, so we just went back to our campsite for a five-o'clock "grape" juice.  Really, an alchohol ban on Canada Day week-end.   Canada, we thought you were better than that!

Banff NP (Tunnel Trailer Park) - Banff, AB

Deb and I typically try to avoid large crowds as we travel, so we visit places like Glacier Park during the week, instead of week-ends.  So thinking about this well in advance, I carefully planned our trip so that we would be in Canada for the 4th of July week-end.  Well, July 1st is Canada Day, a day where every Canadian hops in their RV or whatever they have available and goes someplace for parades and fireworks.  Whoops!

Overflow parking, we are in #849!

We are spending the night at Tunnel Trailer Park. As an RVer there is nothing more scary to me than the word "Tunnel."  It turns out that there is no tunnel, it's just next to Tunnel Mountain, Phew!

Banff Avenue

With the throngs of people and the evening parade,  Friday "date night" is out, but we may bike in for breakfast in the morning.  

Saint Mary KOA - Saint Mary, MT

Glacier Park Lodge, East Glacier Park, MT

We returned the rental car.  I didn't really have this figured out when I planned this.  The car rental place was 40 miles away, the KOA that we are going to is only 1/4 mile from where we were camping.  But the silver lining was that the car rental was next to the Glacier Park Lodge, the park terminus of the Great Northern Railroad.  The hotel was built in 1913, with huge tree trunks.  The timbers still have the bark on them after over 100 years.  We ate lunch at the Lodge...delicious. The Lodge is a daily stop on the Chicago to Seattle Amtrak train, maybe someday, we will return by train.

The KOA was a good stop for doing laundry and cleaning the RV, with a nice view of the mountains, and good ice cream.  I'm not sure that being packed into a 5 acre site with 200 or 300 other RVs gives you a real feel of the Rockies.