The road to Jasper ...

On the road

I have good reason for my blogging lapse ... I've been trapped inside a Canadian Rockies travel brochure.  Complete with emerald lakes, snowcapped mountains, majestic glaciers, pretty wildflowers, shy (and some not so shy) wildlife, babbling brooks and forest shaded rivers.  It's not a bad place to be actually.

Surrounded by mountains

Approaching the Athabasca Glacier

On Saturday morning, I headed off with a friend for four days of exploration in Jasper National Park, a five hour drive northwest of Calgary.  The drive is absolutely spectacular, worthy of a blog entry all by itself.  To fully enjoy the drive, we took the whole day to make our way to our final destination, the township of Jasper.  Most of the five hour drive is in national parks, with high mountains, trees and roadside wildflowers framing the road for the duration of the trip.  The most stunning part of the journey was through the Icefield Parkway, 230 kilometres of snowcapped mountains, awesome glaciers and steep valleys flowing with frigid glacial waters.  In fact, Lonely Planet name this drive as number one on their 'to-do in Canada' list.

The Athabasca Glacier

These markers show how far the glacier has reclined

Along the way there are many places to stop, enjoy the view and perhaps go on a short stroll to another view.  We, along with every other tourist and holidaying local, stopped at some of the major sights including the Athabasca Glacier, Sunwapta Falls and Bow Lake.  We also stopped at some of the smaller and less crowded sights where we took the time to sit beside fast-flowing rivers and be overwhelmed with awe while gazing up at the imposing glaciers.

Wildflowers at the base of the glacier

The cold and fast-flowing waters coming from the glacier

Sometimes, travel brochures describe scenes that seem too good to be true - most Canadian travel literature lures you in with the promise of up close (but not too close) encounters with wildlife.  Here, it's true.  Wildlife can be spotted grazing alongside the road, occasionally causing traffic to bank up and tourists to engage in thoughtless behaviour.  We were stopped by a group of bighorn sheep who were playing on the roadside cliff and on the road itself.  International tourists fed them cherries while standing next to the 'It is unlawful to approach or feed wildlife' sign.

The silly Australian who decided to run through those cold and fast-flowing glacial waters ... brrrr!

Wildflower up close

We arrived in the Jasper in the early evening.  Before retiring to our mountain-view room for the night, we wandered around the township, grateful that we had chosen Jasper over the more touristy mountain towns of Banff and Lake Louise.  Despite still being touristy, Jasper seems to have retained much its quaint mountain town feel.  As I fell asleep that night, I really did feel like I was living in a travel brochure and I couldn't wait to start hiking.

Bighorn sheep on the road

Surefooted sheep

Sunwapta Falls

Sunwapta Falls

Caribou crossing

Random waterfall

Valley

Valley leading away from the Athabasca Glacier

A pretty river

Trees and mountains

Another pretty river

Spectacular view along the drive

And another pretty river

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), this is the closest I got to seeing a bear

Bow Lake with the Bow Glacier in the background

Some blue sky

Wildlife overpass - these are dotted along the highway in a bid to keep the wildlife safe from cars.  Apparently, it works.

Trains in Jasper town

Canada trains in Jasper town

Jasper town

Jasper Firehall