Jasper

We hit the road early and drove an hour to Valemont where we had breakfast at a delightful little café called The Gathering Place.  It had a gnome garden, a Buddhist water fountain with chimes and all kinds of wonderful coffees and teas and a nice breakfast.  We said goodbye to Cheryl and Bill, who were headed home to Sherwood Park, did some grocery shopping and took off on the Yellowhead Highway into the most gorgeous scenery.  Mt. Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, was truly beautiful.  Cheryl told us that her mother had traveled that way probably 50-100 times in her lifetime and never saw the top.  Neither did we!

Mt. Robson

There are snow-capped peaks, rivers and lakes everywhere.  The sky is the same color as the best days in Colorado-a lovely deep blue, and the rivers are ice blue-some almost white!

We hit downtown Jasper at about 3 and Jim sat happily paying bills and depositing checks, etc. for a few hours while Boo and I roamed the town.  The Canadian railroad is what made Jasper originally such a booming town, so we were excited to see the trains coming and going, right along the main street in town.  The train station itself reminded me of my growing up days in Lancaster, PA, which had a lovely old train station.

Inside the train station

The scene in Jasper is very relaxing and beautiful, despite it being at the height of tourist season.  The mountains are everywhere.

On our way out of town, we stopped to admire this incredible totem that stands about 40 feet tall.  The original Raven totem was repatriated to Haida Gwaii, a tribal nation off the Pacific coast and the people of that nation made a new one for Jasper to once again tie the two communities together.  This one tells the story of two brothers-one who remained in the Rockies and one who returned home to Haida Gwaii. 

We checked in to our campground at Whistler’s around 7 and found that we had a lovely site, pretty private and surrounded by aspen, lodgepole pines and snow capped mountains all around which peak through the trees. 

The most relaxed of all!

It is now 10:30 and it is still light enough to read outside.  We are amazed by the light up here.  We wake up around 3 or 4 and it is light, too!  We thought you’d have to be further north to experience this.

They say they have bears every night in the park and they are very strict about keeping your campsite “bare”—meaning everything comes inside.  They don’t have the bear lockers at each site like they do in many places in the states, so we are bringing in our cooler, tablecloth, water, etc.  each night.