Day 12 - Jasper National Park, Alberta (Canada)
Sunday 7/2/2006
While we wanted to wake up early, we overslept a bit, but it would seem like it was needed. We started out with breakfast and a slight cleanup in the trailer. We then headed up to Maligne Canyon, for its self guided tour. This is a trail that follows a river that has been carved into the limestone rock over a long period of time. In some parts the river has carved itself 50m (165ft) down into the rock.
The river at Maligne Canyon in Jasper NP AB
Raging waters
Erik takes a rest and discovers he has added a few pounds since we started :-)
We hurried back towards the campground. We stopped in town to buy a couple of food items. I decided we did not need to fuel up for the trip to the Columbia Icefield although it looked like touch-and-go. We went back to the trailer and ate lunch, after which we headed back out on the road again. Isabella wanted to drive the truck for a change. Along the way we bumped into a small herd of mountain goats. These sort of wild-life sightings beside the road can be very hazardous since people stop along the road without much warning. Not sure why, but the animals appear to be "eating" dirt beside the road. We can only guess this is because road-salt got pushed over with the snow from the winter.
Mountain goats beside the highway (losing their winter coats)
Our next stop was the Columbia Icefield, which is about 1 1/2 hour from the campground, including minor stops along the way. This place is one of many conjoined glaciers nere the northern tip of Banff National Park. You can visit the icefield with a special bus. The buses crawl very slowly up the glacier, almost at a glacial pace.. They have 210HP Detroit diesel engines with very low gears. They crawl at 5-10mph.
Inside the special glacier bus
Looking down on the glacier from the bus as we road up on the glacier
Nearing the end of the road on the huge glacier. Perspective is lost in picture, but this extends 1/2 mile up
Isabella and Erik are walking back to the "monster bus"
Posing in front of a monster tire
An earlier edition of the special glacier bus
A herd of mountain goats seen walking on the moraine below the glacier
When we got back down to the parking lot we had a slight dilemma. The truck had consumed a bit more fuel than I had expected from the last refill and we ended up on the reserve on our way from Jasper. To return back to Jasper from the icefield is over 60 miles and lots of hills to go through. The computer said we had consumed about 28.6 gallons, which would leave us with 5.4 to get back to Jasper. That was too close of a call, especially since the computer often shows there is more fuel left than there really is. They did not want to sell me any fuel at the icefield so I decided to play it safe and head for the nearest station, about 40 miles south into Banff. That turned out to be a smart choice, since we computer was off by 2 1/2 gallons in terms of what was left in the tank. Had we tried to make it for Jasper, we would definitely had run out of diesel. The downside to this was the extra round trip time and the most expensive fuel so far: $3.90/gal... On our way back we stopped at a very interesting part of the river where clear glacial water met more muddy water.
Clear blue glacial water meets muddy water and mixes into one river downstream
The picture above has some interesting follow up details. In order for Erik to appear like that in the picture, he had to jump over part of the ice cold water to a small island. Once he was done, he realized it was too far to jump back. So he thought he'd use logs and branches to build something he could walk on, so that he could avoid stepping in the icecold water.
Testing the strength. Not strong enough!
Need a little more strength ... then I should be all set!
Well... wood holds up but Erik side steps
Exactly what Erik tried to avoid: two ice cold feet
We continued towards our campground in Jasper. One of the interesting things about this valley is that you can really see how these mountains were created by the forces of nature, pushing tectonic plates together. We have not seen this as evident as here.
Amazing sight: how the rockies were formed is very evident here
Some interesting flowers beside the road. Notice how they have swirled.
We grilled the meat for dinner and Erik made some mashed potatoes to go with it. It tasked great. Afterwards, the kids wanted to do some marshmallows and somemores. This always brings out some great mood. The bugs were not too bad.
Doing marshmallows over the fire
Totally enjoying it. Karl's hands are like glue