Sulphur Mountain and Columbia Icefields

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We planned to take the gondola trip up Sulphur Mountain on Friday and awoke to clear blue skies. The gondola has been an attraction in Banff for a long time; we rode the original one back in 1979. A new gondola with Swiss built cars was installed in 1998, the cars are enclosed and can accommodate four people so we had a private ride; just as well as unknown to me Carole had never been on a cable car before! The trip up takes about 15 minutes.
The views are magnificent on the way up, but are absolutely breath-taking from the 7500’ summit. We walked up to the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station National Historic Site and Norman Sanson’s 1903 Weather Observatory. Norman Sanson climbed the mountain every week for over 30 years to his stone hut at the mountain top, to record weather data. After the gondola ride we took a trip in search of grizzly bears, enjoying a picnic lunch close to the area where they had been spotted the day before. Unfortunately no grizzly bears or anything else crept out of the forest to join our lunch.
On Saturday we left Banff and headed north on the Columbia Icefields Parkway toward Jasper. It was another beautiful morning and just perfect for the travel we had in front of us. Some of the most spectacular view can be seen from this highway. We were also eyes-peeled for wildlife. We were rewarded early, coming across a group of mountain goats that were shedding their winter coat, and then some more elk. We had travelled about half way to Jasper when we saw another black bear, this one was considerably bigger than the one we had seen on the Lake Louise highway; unfortunately I had my camera set for scenery and didn’t get a very good picture. Then when we were about ten miles out of Jasper we came across a large group of mountain goats, these still wore their cold weather coats because of course we were now more than 150 miles farther north. I had not realized that this was a long weekend in Canada. (Canada Day is celebrated on July 1st), none of the campgrounds on the Parkway can be reserved and all were full on the way up to Jasper so we ended up in an overflow campground at Snaring River—quite the experience for Carole and Brian as there were NO hook ups; thank goodness for a modern RV!
Our campground reservation was good the next day so we headed into Jasper. Had an enjoyable walk around then stopped for lunch in a local pub that just happened to be showing the World Cup Soccer Final so we spent longer (2 beers to be exact) enjoying the match! Don’t think the Germans in the next room enjoyed it quite as much! We pulled into our camp site in Whistlers Campground around 4 PM.

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Photos

Going Up
There is a sea of mountains all around, I took so many pictures and could put at least 20 up from this viewpoint

Golf Course
This is the manditory shot of the golf course that runs along side of the Bow River. Lake Minnewanka in the background

Cable Car
We all enjoyed the ride

Weather Staion
Doesn't look too comfortable--or would it be too warm in the winter time

Whiskey Jack
These are a member of the Jay family. They live here all year around, they store food in the conifer trees

Relaxing
Just enjoying a couple of beers in the late afternoon sun. Brian was fixing to start the BBQ after he took this photo

Bow Glacier
The thumb of the glacier started to melt about 8000 years ago and created Johnston Canyon

Parkway
The views from the Icefields Parkway are just outstanding, I've just included three here.

Mountain Goats
These guys were just munching on the grass at the side of the road and didn't even give us a second glance

Jasper
Is also very picturesque and has a great atmosphere

Jasper
The bank occupies a historic building on the main street in Jasper