Part 6: There are No Mountains in Jasper National Park

Please check out the above blog posts if you are interested in our trip up until this point.

Day 16: Driving the Icefields Parkway north to Jasper National Park.

When I started planning the trip back last fall, I originally planned for Banff to be our northernmost point. Then I started reading about how the Icefields Parkway, the road from Banff NP to Jasper NP was supposedly one of the most beautiful drives in the world, and I figured, well, we oughta do it. So I booked two nights camping in Jasper, but then we had to get back. I would have loved to have more days, but this trip was already just over 3 weeks (I included weekends, so 3 weeks with both the weekends) and we have like, jobs, and stuff.

I also had the Gypsy Guide app for the Icefields Parkway. I’d used the app in Yellowstone, but I’ll say I thought the one for the Icefields Parkway was better and more informative. Lots of great information and stories.

So, we packed up our campsite in Banff and hit the road. The mountains were covered in fog for a bit, in fact, more than a bit.

Our first big stop along the road was Peyto Lake. We almost skipped this stop because it was raining and then we said, okay fine. I’m glad we did!

Though the mountains were quite covered, the Lake was a gorgeous color. The path was a bit annoying as it was paved yet quite steep, but I guess that makes it easier to maintain. For your information, the parking lot had some gigantic potholes and we were happy not to be in a Toyota Corolla.

Then we took the short hike down to Mitaya Canyon. Mitaya Canyon is a slot canyon formed by the river (as canyons are generally formed) and is a short hike from the parking lot.

At one point we saw a herd of bighorn sheep along the road. They like to lick the salt.

The road went by some of the most amazing scenery, even though parts were obscured by clouds or fog.

The big highlight of the day was the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefields. You can take a bus out to the glacier, but it was expensive and so busy when we arrived, that we decided to do the hike to the Toe of the Glacier instead. (Spoiler Alert: we decided to do the tour on our return). What we didn’t realize was that the hike doesn’t officially go to the toe (the edge of the glacier) so we had to duck under a barrier to get there. Everybody else was doing the same, and we didn’t want to get so close but not get there. One thing to note: the closer you get to the Icefields, the colder it gets. I was glad to have brought my coat along.

As you walk to the glacier, there are little signs telling you what years the glacier was at various points. It’s a long walk past the signs.

We didn’t see this guy, but I think we would have if he’d been around.

I’ve decided that khaki pants are just never a good idea. But nonetheless, I found this sign interesting because my family visited the Athabasca Glacier in 1991. So this was new territory of ground for me from this point forward.

I’ve finally figured out how to put selfies in my blog posts. Generally my computer makes them upside down but if I open them, “edit” them and save them again, they work.

So that’s us, standing on the Glacier. It really was that ugly brown color, but it was ice. Wear good shoes!

Our next stop was Sunwapta Falls. It was funny—the road wasn’t too busy, but at all the “recommended” stops the parking lots would be slammed. We didn’t do any long hikes along the road, just a mile here, two miles there, and we realized by the end of the day we had hiked nearly 12 miles.

And after Sunwapta Falls, we stopped at Athabasca Falls. I’m more of a lake person than a falls person, but the power of water is just so impressive!

It was getting to be close to 6 pm by the time we arrived at our campground, Wapiti Campground. We would have liked to cook dinner and make a fire, but it was raining off and on and we were only a few miles from the town of Jasper, so we decided to go out to dinner. First we set up our tent on site RR20, which was on a bluff above the Athabasca River. Then we headed to town, and after walking around briefly, decided to get dinner at Evil Dave’s. It was pretty good, and we were definitely hungry!

We got dessert as well.

Day 17: We woke up not terribly early and it was pretty foggy and rainy. We decided to forge ahead with our first plan for the day, the Valley of the Five Lakes Trail.

Now. We’d been really luck on our trip so far. We had managed to not let rain ruin many of our plans. Today would be different though. We did the hike. I suppose there might have been mountains, but we certainly didn’t see any. It was only raining lightly, off and on, and the Five Lakes were perfectly nice, but I imagine the mountains might make the hike nicer.

See! Pretty lakes, no mountains.

We were cold and damp after that hike, so we decided to head back to Jasper town to see about a brunch/lunch something. We ended up at a diner called Smithy’s which was totally fine, and then walked around a bit. We kept hoping the weather would clear up, as it was possibly forecasted to, but it didn’t. We went to the “Museum of Wildlife” which was a creepy taxidermy place and that was worth the visit–even though I think taxidermy is awful and creepy I am also kind of fascinated by it. Louie finally got a pair of shoes, so that was a success! (At a store, not at the taxidermy museum.)

We thought we’d check out the fancy hotel in town so we drove over to the Fairmont Jasper Lodge. It was a nice place, with elk and golf, and a big lake.

It kept raining, so we were getting a little depressed. We went to nearby Lake Annette and started walking around it…and after about a mile, the mountains did start clearing up a bit! Not for good though, but we got a taste of things. We also went to see Lakes Pyramid and Raven after that.

I think Louie might be a better actor than me. Or I’m a better photographer than he is? Winking smile

We decided (because of the weather) to eat out again. We had a great dinner at a place called Raven. Afterwards, we went back to the camp, and decided to purchase a fire permit and have a fire. It had finally stopped raining enough to be outside, and we weren’t sure if this was our last chance for a fire…either way it was our last chance for a fire in the Canadian Rockies. The firepit was wet and actually full of water, so Louie had to work hard to get the fire started.

One funny thing was that on my way to the bathroom at one point I ran into a woman who realized we had been at the KOA in Glacier together! Every once in awhile you’d see people and think they looked familiar, and did they look familiar because they’d been at a previous park or campground with you? Who knows!

Day 18: Back through the Icefields Parkway. We got up and packed up our tent. It was still pretty poor visibility in the area, so we decided, well, we’ll have to return to Jasper someday and hope for better weather! Almost right away we saw a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road, and yep, it was a black bear! No great pictures though.

Things looked clearer as we went along though!

We didn’t plan to stop very much along our drive today, as we had two days to get to Theodore Roosevelt Park, and at least 16 hours to drive. We hoped to drive more than halfway, at least.

Well, as we got closer to the Columbia Icefields again, Louie started to worry he’d regret not doing the bus tour. I’d gone as a child, so it wasn’t something I needed to do…but I worried he’d regret it to. We decided to just go for it—it was only about 10:30 am when we arrived and though our tickets were for a later tour, we were able to squeeze into the next tour! (I will say that tickets were ridiculously expensive and had to include the sky walk, so we paid more than $100 Canadian per ticket. It was $16 for adults in 1991.)

I was pretty pumped though, because I remembered absolutely loving the tour.

You first get on a regular tour bus, then you go to an area right near the glacier and get transferred onto a special ice bus and you get driven right out onto the glacier. It was pretty cool. You pass by this giant rock man.

The tour driver was a young man from Scotland and he was very funny.

There were a ton of people out there, as you might imagine. The crowds in this area are truly insane. It’s so worth it anyway, though!

Some kind midwesterners took some pictures of us.

Those tires are pretty big!

After about 30 minutes we had to get back on the bus and head to our tour bus again.

Next stop was the Glacier Skywalk, a strange contraption that goes out over the edge of the mountain and has a clear plastic or whatever bottom on it. Not my cup of tea at all, but we had the tickets for it so we went. You can pick up a handheld tour guide gadget and that made everything go smoothly and you felt like you were learning!

After we were done at the skywalk, we boarded another tour bus and headed back to the Icefields Center. It was past time for lunch, so we decided to eat there—we knew we’d be leaving Canada soon, so we decided to get an order of poutine, and we got a veggie burger as well.