Day 72 Jasper - Canmore
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
80
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Canmore,
Alberta,
Canada
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Up we get at around 6:45am for breakfast pack and move to attempt to catch the early morning lift to the top of Whistler mountain.
Of course we are used to observing wildlife along our journey, so to come across a small herd of around 5-7 elk alongside the road as we slowed to pass them was great but no big deal. They were beautiful animals in wonderful condition with a couple of young ones with them.
We managed to be right on time to obtain tickets for the "first flight" on the tramway, well done team!
We were delayed while they sent the first tram up loaded with supplies for the food centre up on the mountain.
At last we load up on the tram and off we go on a cable with a breaking strain of around 250 ton, we figure we are safe even though this was built in 1964.
It was interesting to float through the cloud and head on up this cliff face to the world of mountain climbers. (we are still wondering at this sport that appears to fascinate many people) we were told that you can climb this mountain and it takes anything from 5 hours to 45 mins being the fastest. We figure the tramway at 7.7mins is certainly the best option.
We arrived in the cloud and alighted our chariot.
The view was; well umm, err, gee it is hard to see the rope or more than 100 ft any way.
Yep we were surrounded by cloud!
No avail there is a coffee shop! In we head and find a seat by the window, and are rewarded not only with refreshments but the cloud drifted clear and continued to change the view for us, we were amazed by the changing scene, as the cloud obscured our view, then cleared.
We certainly recommend this journey, because quite honestly the views did open to give us a wonderful perspective of the surrounds, sights and mountains around Jasper. Truly a great perspective, "maybe we can understand the mountain climbers wanting to scale to these heights" BUT gee just as well someone chose to invest in a tramway, we might never have understood the climbers otherwise.
Well worth the trip and the investment of $25 each to enjoy this experience.
Back down into the Castle and off we go, on the road down a car is parked with the hazard lights flashing, oh gee YAWN HO HUM, to us experienced bear viewers, they are taking photos of a black bear showing it's "rear end" as it walks into the woods! It didn't warrant a stop for the Castle! How sad is that?
Never mind we set sail to The Glacial Icefields, at this point our sights are set on experiencing a trip up on the glacier.
Whoops, what do we see on the way, another sign suggesting waterfalls, of course by this stage we are addicted to observing the fast wide rivers attempt to squish through narrow canyons, these falls are called the, Sunwapta falls, a "generous" application of the Castles brakes allowed us to turn in, in time without any major spillage from fridge or cupboards, but a few "bumpity, bumpity bumps! With Karon saying "whoa whoa whoa!" reasonably loudly! (well done Rick! Yeah right!) After this type of turn it is a "lotto" to open a cupboard or fridge, Marian won and opened the fridge to have the butter "jump out at her to land on the floor" but again we enjoyed the natural forces coming into contact, with the force of a fast flowing river against the sentinels of rock attempting to be King Canute and hold back the water.
A truly wonderful feeling of the awesome power of the water and nature at its best.
"On the road again" (nope we didn't break out into the song! Or maybe Karon did!) heading towards the glacier icefields, the views and photo stops we took were again postcard stuff, but just awesome to feel and see. The weather at this stage was wonderful sunshine and warm, but we certainly have learnt that you ensure you have adequate layers in this part of the world.
The trip up on the glacier was a new experience for Marian and Karon, Earnie and Rick had previously experienced this trip, although the new facility built in 1996 and the improved transportation system was well done and professionally put together.
To drive up on this icefield and to know the ice was laid here a couple of hundred years ago and is still pushing its way to a final destination of an ocean.
It is a hard thing to comprehend that the icefield above this glacier feeds water to three oceans; the Arctic to the north, the Pacific to the west and the Atlantic to the east. How great to be a snow flake 200 years ago and choose what way to flow and become water in the 200 year period from the beginning of your life. Interesting concept!
The understanding and experience again keeps us in awe to have developed this experience for us to share for ourselves and all those loyal followers that keep revisiting our site.
We mention this to say thanks to the many people following our journey, the average hits per day is reached 42 yesterday, thank you to all our friends and relatives that care enough to follow our wonderful journey.
We left the icefield on our way towards Canmore Alberta, (we had pre-booked a place just out of the Banff National Park)
We had a turn off at Lake Louise the famous lake in the Canadian Rockies, this was a nice photo stop and a view of the famous Fairmont Resort hotel, originally began in 1912, now developed to a resort 5 star hotel. The lake is a picture postcard in winter or summer and is a destination of tourists, of which we observed some Japanese "tourists" hire two canoes' at $50.00 per hour, one with mum and one child, the dad and child 2 in the other. HOW interesting, neither parent had a clue how to make this boat work! They spent a few minutes paddling around in circles and not more than 10 metres from the dock. NO we didn't laugh (YES we did but who could have held a laugh in?) we just added it to the journeys experience and smiled and walked away.
From here we headed on to our home for the night, YEE haa we found the park and yep it is near a rail line! How good are we at picking the RV parks?
Never mind we have power, and water and not a long walk to the facilities, and it costs a "Loonie" for a shower. (if you recall a Loonie is a Canadian $1 coin) so still alive and well and enjoying the journey.
Comments
Carol's Comments
Well I have finally caught up with your blogs. Looked at the pictures and I think they look great. It is hard to put them into perspective so we get the enormity of the places you are lucky enough to be seing. You look like you are having an amazing time. Catch you later.
PS Missing your cheery face Karon
Carol's Comments
Hi All
I have finally caught up with your blogs. Looked at all the pictures and they look great. It is really hard to put them into perspective so we can see the enormity of the places you are lucky enough to visit. Looks and sounds like you are having a great time. Catch you later.
PS Am missing your cheery face Karon