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Grizzly Bear
The first photo of the tripI finally managed to get two days off in a row and had well over $500 remaining from last pay so I headed straight to Sundog Tours booking office on Sunday without a clue of what I wanted to do. I just told them that I wanted to get away from Jasper for a day or two and ended up booking a tour down to Banff. Banff is about 3.5 hours away (without constantly stopping), travelling south-east along Highway 93, better known as the Icefields Parkway. We were to stop at Athabasca Falls, Columbia Icefield and Lake Louise along the way. It turned out to only be $30 dearer than going to Edmonton, which didn't include a tour or awesome scenery so I was easily persuaded. The only issue was having to catch a bus at 8.30 in the morning, but I made it!!
I actually made it to the bus stop (30 metres from my front door) at 8.25 by my watch, and waited half an hour for the bus to arrive. I was already believing that I had missed it and it arrived just on time, as i was about to head down to their office to try
and score a refund or a free trip to Edmonton. The tour guide, Ben, was from Perth and also lives in Jasper. It was interestibng to see an aussie be so passionate about the Rockies and even got me thinking about maybe being a tour guide one day, but that can wait a while. The first pictures I took were of a Grizzly Bear. YES!! I SAW A BEAR!! It was a young Grizzly walking, literally, on the side of the road. Ben couldn't tell if it was male or female but it was still a bit thin from winter, as I would clearly be able to tell the next day. That was in between Jasper and the Athabasca Falls, which are about half an hour from Jasper. The falls weren't much, but it was interesting to see the Athabasca River (which runs right next to Jasper town) run a lot quicker, and also the history of the falls. I'll explain that a little bit more in the caption of one of my photos. Then it was a drive of what I thought were picturesque snowcapped mountains until we reached the Columbia Icefield.
An icefield is usually a group
of interconnected glaciers that create a permanent ice surface of less than 50,000 square kilometres. The Columbia Icefield is relatively small but probably the most well-known in the entire world. It also a triple continental divide, being the only one in the entire world. The Athabasca River flows from the icefield and eventually ends up in the Arctic Ocean, while the Saskatchewan River ends up in the Atlantic and the Columbia River finishes in the Pacific. While I was there I paid an extra $50 to go on a "snocoach" ride onto the Athabasca Glacier, which is visible from the highway. These snocoaches are specially-designed buses worth around $750,000 a pop. The driver/guide was quite funny and entertaining and really made the ride more interesting. He also said it was a "fair" day to go onto the glacier (when we drove past on the way home the next day, it was perfect). It was bitterly cold and windy on the glacier and I couldn't see to the top of the glacier, so I'm not sure if it was worth the money, to be honest. The drive onwards to Lake Louise was amazing. The altitude is much higher than Jasper so
there is still quite a lot of snow, which I keep hearing is quite unusual for this time of year. I'm not complaining, though, as I think I could never get sick of seeing snow-capped mountains. They were much bigger and closer than the mountains around Jasper as well. We stopped at a couple of lakes and glaciers along the way, one of which was still completely frozen. (Keep in mind that all of this is literally on the side of the highway.)
Lake Louise was the next stop. I was quite excited for this as Lake Louise is the place that was number one on my must-see/do list in Canada. Ben gave us 20 minutes at the lake and I was first off the bus (I was sitting at the back) and almost ran down to the lake. Unfortunately when I got there I saw that the lake was still mostly frozen. Anyone who has seen pictures of this lake would know the bright colour of turqoise that the water is and, unfortunately, this was still hidden from me. There was also a lot of people around the lake making it very hard to get a clear picture
of the lake. I was pretty disappointed but I'm only three hours away so I'll make sure I go back in two or three months to hopefully satisfy myself. On the way to Banff we managed to see a black bear and a coyote, though we couldn't stop for a picture.
We arrived in Banff around 6.00pm or 7.00pm (I can't really remember) and once I was checked in I went for a casual walk downtown. Banff is in a very similar setting to Jasper. The town is about 2-3 times the size in population and has a lot more shops and is a lot more commercial. It also surrounded by mountains, although they seem much bigger and closer. I stood at one intersection and managed to take photos in all four different directions. With the amount of light left they turned out really well. For dinner I settled on a place called the Tavern. They had $10 pizza and $4.50 beer specials and some very cute servers. Combined with a close hockey game on the television, it was quite a reaxing hour or so. I checked out some shops on the way home and saw a "Buy one,
get the second half price" special at Foot Locker so I went in and spent $200 on new shoes. They were top brands and I needed them so I didn't even think twice about the outlay. Back at the hostel I asked front desk how much a gondola ride would cost me. I was told it was only $16 and ended up having a couple of drinks in the Beaver and chatted to a guy from Toronto. He had also just come from Jasper that day, albeit he had hitch-hiked. He said he was picked up by a well-known member of the Canadian women's ski team. It got me a little jealous and thinking I might have to give hitch hiking a go one day. I headed to bed around 1am as i had an (relatively) early morning the next day.
An 8am start and headed straight to the kitchen for breakfast. SameSun vancouver coukd learn a few things from their Banff counterpart. As well as toast and fruit, there was porridge and PANCAKES!!! Num-num-num. After checking out I started my walk up to the gondola. I wasn't smart enough to leave my bags at the hostel until my
bus arrived, which would soon end up being a big mistake. The walk was one hour and when I finally arrived, i was pleased to learn that the gondola would cost $33.95. After the night before, i didn't have the cash to go up the mountain and I didn't have time to walk up. I decide to get the bus back to save time and while waiting I took some photos ofthe gondola and the surrounds, which was still a decent view in itself. I still wanted to get an elevated view of the Banff area so i decided to walk up Tunnel Mountain. This is the small mountain in town and i was told (or led to believe) it was a cruisy walk. Once again, the front desk stuffed up because it was actually quite steep and with my bags and this stupid spitting rain that wouldn't subside, it was a really shitty walk. The drizzle did subside when I got to the peak and it's a good thing it did as the view was stunning and really made the walk worthwhile. It provided a virtual 360-degree view of the Banff area and these snowcapped mountain and glacial waters
are 100 times better in the sunshine. I couldn't rest at the top for long as i was pushing for time and wanted to make sure I had a McDonald's fix before I left town. I got back to hostel with ten minutes to spare and the bus arrived only one mouthful into my burger. We took the same route back (albeit with less stops), which was both good and bad because the weather along the Icefields Parkway was actually better than the day before. We saw three more black bears on the return trip and I sat on the same side of the bus which meant i got to see the other side of the highway. It was very different to other side as the mountains were much rockier with little or no snow. There also a lot more waterfalls. The Athabasca Glacier looked a lot nicer on the way back but I used the last of my camera battery on the first bear we saw.
After two long days it was nice to be home and rest for a while, but on the other hand it sucked to be back to reality. I would've loved to have
had two nights away but unfortunately the bus schedule didn't work in my favour. Not to worry, though, as, like I said earlier, I can come back in a couple of months.
Til next time!
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Banf
Once again Jason I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog! Made me laugh as I can picture you and get your humour. But I prefer you not hitchhike.