August 4 and 5--Prince George, BC to Mount Robson

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August 4, 2011 Costco Parking Lot, Prince George, BC. High clouds and sunshine—yeah!! 59 degrees with stating mileage at 13978.

Started the morning looking at all the dead moths that had died all over Jim and Dianne’s RT. They had parked under one of the light poles in the parking lot and a swarm of the moths were attracted and were killed by flying too close. Jim had to remove and clean them out of their fan vent as well as off their RT body. We were two spaces away but still had them stuck in the windshield wipers. The number of dead bodies reminded Valerie and I of crossing the desert with Mom and Dad and pulling into a gas station that had so many grasshoppers/crickets covering the concrete that you had to crunch your way to the bathroom and back to the car. This had to have happened over 55 years ago but we both remember it.

Drove east along the Yellow-head Highway until we came to the community of McBride that is situated in the pretty Fraser River valley. We stopped for a break and looked at the railroad depot that has been turned into a welcome center and a place to sell local craft items. After looking around we got back into our RT’s and headed on down the road toward Mount Robson.

Stopped and ate lunch at the very nice Mount Terry Fox rest area. The peak was named in 1981 for a young Canadian man who had his leg amputated to remove a cancerous tumor when he was a teenager. Before his death from the disease he raised $25 million dollars for cancer research by attempting to run across Canada. He ran a marathon of 26 miles each day, but only got from Newfoundland into Ontario before cancer spread to his lungs and he had to stop. Marathons in his name are now conducted in 50 countries and over $360 million are raised each year in his name.

Drove a few miles further and into Mount Robson Provincial Park and then pulled into the Meadows Campground. This is a huge campground with 125 sites. After driving around and not find any adjacent double type spots we decided to park across the road from each other.

We had dinner together with Jim and Dianne grilling hamburgers and lots of veggies. After dinner and talking a bit, we called it a night. We are splitting up here with Jim and Dianne traveling south on one highway through Kamloops and Valerie and I traveling south through Jasper and Banff. We plan to meet in four days at Dry Gulch Campgrounds.

Friday, August 5th Got a late start at 11:00. Jim, Dianne and Rocky pulled out way before us. 62 degrees. Mileage at 14202 and we are 2,500 feet high. Wispy clouds on the very top of Mt Robson this morning.

Valerie stopped first at the Visitors’ Center while I looked through the tiny gift shop before driving into Jasper National Park. Time changed as we hit the Alberta Provincial line—lost an hour as now on Mountain Time.

Jasper, Banff, and Kootenay National Parks are all connected to each other. They are administered separately, so you have to pay a user fee to enter each one. We had purchased two all inclusive senior passes so we didn’t have to pay at this point. Unlike our senior passes that go for $10 for a lifetime, these are annual passes and run about $60 each.

I am not going to try and describe the spectacular mountain scenery with numerous ice fields, and glaciers, and waterfalls, and lakes all along the 233 km Icefields Parkway that we drove between the communities of Jasper and Lake Louise/Banff . Suffice it to say that everyone who likes the mountains and wilderness needs to put this road on their “bucket list.” Just don’t wait until mid-summer when everyone else is also there. We are both glad we did this road after seeing Alaska as we would have been a bit jaded if we had done it in reverse order. The US Rockies are nothing compared to the absolutely stunning Canadian Rockies.

We arrived at the pretty community of Jasper and saw the mass of tourists walking the town. The Canadian Pacific Railroad has a depot right in town so tourists also ride up to the park on the train. We parked and checked with the rangers at the Park Visitors’ center about campgrounds and then headed a few miles north out of town to Snaring River Campground. A mile or so out of town we came upon about 6 ewes with a couple lambs on the side of the road. The shoulder was wide enough that we could stop safely and take some pics.

After doing that, we drove a couple more miles and turned down a dirt/gravel road that leads to the river and the campground. Along a part of the road, the high bush cranberries were ripe and heavy on the bushes and there eagerly stripping them off, was a grizzly bear. We called him a “pinto bear” because his coat was a strange mixture of old long winter coat and brown summer coat. Since we were alone on the road, we stopped and watched him awhile and got good photos safely through the rolled down windows.
Set up camp . We were glad the propane was on that night because the furnace kicked on several times, as it was cold toward dawn.

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