Today was a big day for us! We went on a glacier hike and then came back along the icefields parkway and checked out the waterfalls along the Sunwapta and Athabasca rivers. We woke up early (for us) and drove the 1.5hrs down the Icefield Parkway to the Columbia Icefield visitor center. From this point you can see the various glaciers coming east from the columbia icefield and it's also where the large buses (called Brewsters) leave to go up onto the glacier. We did not want to do the touristy thing so we booked a guided hike/climb up onto the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Yesterday we booked a trip on the Athabasca glacier but it had to occur on Friday (Thursday was a 6hr trip, we wanted a 3hr trip). Today is Thursday so we decided to hit some of the other major attractions in Jasper NP. We started off at Mt. Edith Clavell. Mt. EC is a very large mountain in the park and has multiple glaciers on it. There is a trail that takes you up to the lake at the base of the mountain as well as up another ridge to the high meadows. The total hike was about 5km and 1350 [View Full Entry]

---

---

We’re off! It rained hard early this morning but we stayed nice and dry in the tent… so far it has held up very well. We got to camp around 7:30-8pm last night and set up the tent. I looked over to the next campsite and 3 large elk were wandering on through! We worked until about 9:30 getting the camp ready (rain tarp, got a fire going, etc.). The wood was supplied by the campground (no picking wood off the ground) and it sucked. The wood was very green and could not be lit due to the lack of tinder. [View Full Entry]

---

---

We’re on the road- CA 1 to the C5 toll road. The toll booth operator was funny - asked if we had anything to declare. We said no (middle of BC?) and he said ‘that’s OK, I’m not a border, just bored”. J The last mile of climb before the booth was very steep for a highway but the RAV4 made it! An extra 2 cylinders in the engine would have certainly have helped though! The drive from Abbotsford was very beautiful - lots of huge mountains and scenic valleys. There were a lot of boulders and rock slides as well [View Full Entry]

---

---

Take down in the morning was pretty easy. Greg taught me all about taking the tent down and we packed up the car pretty quickly. The tent was still wet so this was a good learning experience. We drove out through mt. st. Helens and then up I-5. The night before Greg noticed that the lantern and stove were both leaking gas at the gaskets. We stopped off at the huge Cabella’s store north of Olympia, WA to pick up some repair parts. However, the store didn’t have anything but they did have a huge pond with fish and a huge [View Full Entry]

---

---

Got off onto the road about 2pm after an urgent care visit and additional packing. Greg had to try to get the Internet working at the house but something was broken with the router. The drive to Paradise Creek was much shorter than I thought it would be. It was a very beautiful drive through the trees along the Columbia river. We crossed over the Bridge of the Gods - all steel grates - Yikes!… and then we were there. We drove the campsite loop and tracked down our friends who were not really sure who we were due to the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Greg picked up the rental car that we’ll be using for the next month. It’s a Toyota Rav/4 and the seats fold down for plenty of storage space (we’ll need it!). We spent the rest of the day packing and will be heading out tomorrow after packing a few final items. [View Full Entry]

---

---