Grande Prairie

May 29     Jasper to Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada   256 miles   6 hrs

We had a long day of driving today. Saw some wildlife but the highlight was a mama grizzly with her 2 cubs. She was kind of far but it was still a sight to see. I did my best to get some photos.

Mama grizzly with her 2 cubs

We're staying at the Happy Trails RV Park for 2 nites. Kind of expensive, $40 per nite. When we came in this afternoon, there was a lot of mosquitoes....big ones! I guess we're getting ready for Alaska. The temperature here is comfortable, this afternoon was about 70.

May 30     We did a lot of cleaning today. I caught up with laundry and we finally got the chance to clean the Kia. It had tar on it from the drive thru Calgary. Joe got some Mineral Spirits to clean it off. It was hard work and it took a long time but we got the car cleaned and waxed. We still need to clean the RV because got some tar too, but not as bad as the car. We ran out of gas...we'll save the RV for another day. Tomorrow we head for Dawson Creek, Mile 0 for the Alaska highway.

Jasper

May 26   Banff to Jasper National Park   183 miles     6hrs

The view from my bedroom window

This morning we got up and it was clear skies! I couldn't believe it. After 4 gloomy days, we get sunshine on the morning we're leaving. We're driving on the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. The Icefields Parkway, also known as highway 93 north, is one of the most scenic drives .








We stopped at the Columbia Icefield Centre to take a lunch break and check out the Athabasca Glacier. I read about the tour to the glacier on the giant ice explorer. We decided not to do the tour, it cost $50 each person for 1 hour. We could see the glacier just fine from the Centre.

On the drive over, we didn't see any wildlife, which is unusual because everyone said there's a lot of wildlife on the road. When we got to our campground, Whistler's, we had to stop on the way to our campsite because a mama elk and her baby was crossing our path. Joe thinks the baby was just born because his legs were very wobbly and he fell down and had to rest before getting up again.

This is a bear trap kept on our campground, Whistler's. I guess we're not doing much hiking around this campground.

 The weather is better here. The high was 57.

In the afternoon, we took a drive to Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake & Island.

Patricia Lake

Pyramid Lake

Walkway to Pyramid Island

May 27     We drove out to Maligne Canyon this morning.

We ended up doing a hike of over 2 miles and it took us about an hour. Maligne Canyon is a deep gorge with water flowing thru. This is one of the top attractions in Jasper and I can see why. It's simply amazing! The hike was pretty strenuous for us and we were breathing pretty hard and had to take lots of breaks. The scenery was absolutely worth it.

After the hike we drove about an hour to Miette Hot Springs. The water felt wonderful after our hike.

  There was a lot of wildlife on this road. These big horn sheep
don't care if cars are coming.

We thought this was a moose but now we think it's an elk. We don't even know what we're looking at. All I know is....it was huge!









 May 28     Today we took  a half hour drive to Athabasca Falls.

The falls were spectacular and it had a trail surrounding the area so we spent some time exploring the area. The temperature was very comfortable, mid 60's.

Our 3 days at Jasper was very enjoyable. The weather was perfect.

Banff

May 22   Fort MacLeod to Banff National Park  184 miles  4hrs 20mins 

The drive today was kind of slow because of the weather. We stopped in Calgary to find Costco and fill up on gas. Very expensive in Canada, $1.32 per liter. That comes out to $4.99 per gallon... and that's at Costco! The worst part is we went thru some road construction and got tar all over the RV and car. The car looks pretty trashed. Our green car has black tar all over it. We're pretty sick but can't really do anything right now.

I can't believe how expensive everything is here. We got to Banff and stopped to pay our park fees to enter. I knew about this and the charge was $19.60 per car/RV. What surprised me is the charge is per day, not just to get in. So because the weather is so bad, we will probably spend the whole week in Banff and Jasper. We ended up getting a 1 year park pass for $136.00. We're spending the next 4 nights at Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court. It's $38 per night and it's pretty nice here. There's a lot of deer and elk all over the campground.

After settling in, we took a drive out to Lake Minnewanka which is really nice. It's pretty overcast and rainy so I think it would've been nicer if it was a nice, sunny day. We saw a lot of deer, elk, and big horn sheep. It's rainy and cold tonight, probably go down to the low 40's.

 May 23     The temperature today was low 30's....that's freezing! It rained most of the night and this morning was pretty gloomy so we stayed in most of the day. At about 11am, it started snowing. Finally at 5pm, we were getting pretty futless so we went out for dinner. When we went out to the car it had snow and ice all over it. Because I had a raincoat and Joe didn't, I had to clean all the ice and snow off the windshield. Such a wasted day because of the weather but at least our TV works. Only 2 channels but at least its something.

I had to clean the car while Joe waited

May 24    

It's another cold and rainy day, low 30's again. At least it stopped snowing, but still very wet. We went for a drive this afternoon and found Banff Upper Hot Springs. Was kind of crowded so we're going to try to go for a swim tomorrow.

We found Bow Falls which was very nice. Too bad it's so cold...we couldn't stay and walk around the area.

May 25     It's still pretty cold but not as rainy. We took a ride to Lake Louise today. On the way, we stopped at Johnston Canyon and went for a short hike, about 1 mile.

It was mostly uphill and a lot of it was on a catwalk. It was really, really cold but I wanted to do this hike after not much activity the last 2 days. Joe was a good sport. We hiked to the lower falls at Johnston Canyon and it was really something, I'm glad we did it. Joe enjoyed it too....I think.

Then we drove to Lake Louise. Huge lake and absolutely beautiful, even in this ugly, rainy, cold, gloomy weather.

On the way back we stopped at Banff Upper Hot Springs but it was pretty crowded. We decided to go home and have dinner and come back later. When we went back around 8pm, it was still crowded. I was really disappointed but that's okay. Just have to try the one near Jasper.

Canada...finally

May 21   Cut Bank, Montana to Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada    112 miles  3hrs

We crossed the border and entered Canada today. At the last campsite, we were told to enter thru the port of Del Bonita instead of Sweet Grass because at Del Bonita they weren't as strict.When we got there the border patrol came into the motorhome and started asking a lot of questions. He was pretty laid back but then he asked if we had any liquor on board. Joe explained that we had some vodka and crown and started towards the cabinet to show him the bottles. He kind of got excited and told Joe to stay put or he would have to draw his weapon. Other than that it was uneventful.

Port of Del Bonita

We're staying at the Daisy May campground in Fort MacLeod. It's really nice, right on the river. They gave us a Good Sam rate of $33. We're planning to drive to Banff tomorrow but the weather doesn't look too good. It looks like rain for the whole drive up to Calgary and out to Banff.

Joe cooking dinner

Glacier National Park, Mt

May 18    Helena to Cut Bank, Montana     190 miles     4 hrs

We decided to drive to Cut Bank in northern Montana and stay at the Riverview RV Park. From there, we can drive the Kia to Glacier National Park. The rate here is $30 per night, we'll probably stay for 3 nites. Cut Bank is a small industrial town and to get to the RV park was kind of questionable but once we got here, it's really nice. It's pretty quiet and very scenic. If you walk a little ways, it overlooks a river.

May 19   We had an exciting day. We drove to Glacier National Park and did some sightseeing. The first stop was Many Glacier. This park is spectacular, the scenery takes your breath away.

We took a side road to see the Glacier Hotel that was still closed for the season and on the way out, came our first wildlife sighting, big horn sheep. About 5 of them came out from the side of the road and slowly crossed the street, right in front of our car! Then they stopped and blocked the road, so we had to wait. We didn't mind because Joe & I started clicking away on our cameras.

We didn't dare get out of the car

After that, was kind of funny because we were so excited about seeing the sheep, Joe started driving real slow around the rest of the area hoping to find more animals.

Then all of a sudden Joe spotted a moose in the trees right off the road. Was kind of hard to see him, but he was right there...munching on some vegetation. Then he sat down and just rested. When he did that, he blended right in. We would have passed right by him if he was sitting down.

Our next stop was St. Mary's. This is where the road to the sun is but because we're kind of early in the season, we couldn't go up too far. We went as far as Jackson Glacier Overlook and had to turn around.

On the way up we saw this white coyote in an open field.

Then in the trees, we spotted a deer. I know, it's hard to see in this picture, but it's there.

Joe wasn't into doing any hiking, especially after hearing there was a mama grizzly and 2 cubs on one of the trails. We did get out and walk around a little at the Sunrift Gorge at Baring Bridge. This is a 190 foot stone bridge completed in 1933.

I actually touched the icy, cold water

Not much of a hike

We talked to Josh on the way back to the RV park. They just finished cleaning the Crozier lot and was going to cook out with the family. We're so happy our kids are into family get togethers. They said everyone was coming. That made us miss home and the family.

May 20    This morning we drove to East Glacier Park and out to Two Medicine. Was really nice. We had lunch on the lake and started our drive back.

We took a scenic route that took us thru the mountain on a very curvy and winding road. Just when I thought we wouldn't see any wildlife today, we spotted a moose on the side of the road. We took a couple of pictures, but when she saw us she disappeared down the  mountain.

We couldn't get too close

We're driving into Canada tomorrow. We'll be turning off our phones but will be available by email...waialuajoe@gmail.com. We think we'll be able to call from the computer but not able to receive any phone calls.