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Published: February 2nd 2017
I bought myself a new toy! One of the big perks of travelling with two children is you get four cabin bags, which meant my shiny new drone was able to come to Canada with us. I was a little nervous going through security as there's so much negative press surrounding drones, but I needn't have worried, they didn't give it a second glance.
Below is a short video I shot while driving the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper, one of the worlds most scenic drives. The video certainly gives you a better idea of just how beautiful this place is, rather than having to rely on what I'm able to write down. Watching it back, I'm still awestruck on just how beautiful the scenery is, and can't believe that I was there, standing by the side of that road, surrounded by such wonder. If possible watch it in 4K. 😊
If you're considering visiting Canada, do it, just do it, it certainly won't leave you disappointed!!!!
The blog continues after the video.
Carrying on from my previous blog, we were leaving Banff National Park and entering Jasper National Park on the Icefields Parkway.
Our first stop was Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Icefield. This is a great glacier as you can see it from the road, but there is a car park (and a discovery centre to visit) which allows you to park up and take the short walk closer to the glacier itself. As I understand it, there are tours you can take that will take you actually onto the glacier if you want, and apart from a flimsy rope, nothing could stop you from climbing it on your own. There were plenty of warning signs advising against this though, deep crevasses, etc... We didn't take a tour onto the glacier, we were happy to observe it from the bottom and it was pretty spectacular.
After the glacier we continued onwards to Sunwapta falls, some pretty impressive falls with lots of nice walkways and observation points to fully appreciate it.
As we couldn't actually afford to stay in Jasper, the prices for summer are eye watering, for our time in Jasper National Park we stayed in a
HI hostel at
Athabasca Falls. It was basic, with a shared composting toilet, and it also meant that we were 24 minutes from Jasper
town, but it was a lot cheaper. It did have a really nice communal area, which we used to cook meals, and they put on a campfire for us which sounded great, but was very close to the road which killed the atmosphere. I would recommend it though if you have your own wheels and you're travelling on a budget.
We did have a great chat with another travelling family while there. They were travelling south from Jasper and were telling us all about the wildlife they had seen so far, but were desperate to see a grizzly bear. We of course had only had one wildlife spot so far but that
was a grizzly bear, so in their opinion that trumped everything they'd seen. Still, I hoped Jasper would be everything it's claimed to be and we'd see more than we saw in Banff.
Thankfully, on out first trip into Jasper town for breakfast we came across one of the wildlife 'jams' I'd read about, so of course we pulled straight over to check it out for ourselves. There was a small herd of elk foraging at the forests edge which was cool.
While in the
Rockies, we thought it would be a shame not to at least try one of the hot springs dotted around, so we opted for
Miette hot springs, which are actually quite far out from Jasper town (~60km). It was nice driving though, so the drive wasn't really an issue. We also came across some mountain goats high up on the cliffs and there were some big horned sheep hanging out in the car park so we got to see some wildlife too. The hot springs themselves were good, not as good as some other hot springs we've been to on our travels (Iceland has spoilt us), but definitely worth the visit, wallowing around in hot water is always a joy.
We spent a lovely afternoon at Maligne Lake, and did a short walk around the side of the lake and through the forest. The surrounding scenery is incredible and the drive to the lake itself was very beautiful (44km from Jasper). On the way back to Jasper from Maligne Lake we came across another wildlife jam, so of course stopped to see what had caught everyone attention. It was a black bear foraging around on the side of the road. We stayed
and watched for a bit, but it wasn't long before it lumbered off out of sight.
As we were staying nearby and we could even hear it from our hostel, we spent some time at Athabasca falls, some more spectacular falls right on the road between Banff and Jasper. I also had the opportunity to take the drone out above the falls before it got busy (I don't want to fly it over people). As with Banff, we had a great time in Jasper National Park. I'm guessing most people continue west to Vancouver after Banff or are coming from Vancouver so miss Jasper out. It doesn't have the big draws of Lake Louise or Moraine Lake but there was certainly more wildlife to see and a lot less people to enjoy it with which can only be a good thing. Our best wildlife spot in Jasper came though on our final morning heading into town for breakfast.
We came across a jam, in the same place as where we saw the elk previously so just assumed that they were there again. It didn't take long before we realised it wasn't elk though. There was a black bear
mother and cub eating berries by the side of the road, which was a lovely sight to see. As the Jam got worse though a park ranger came along to ease things up and attempted to get the bears out of the sight of the road by firing a starter pistol to scare them off. When the pistol went off though the bear cub shot up the nearest tree, much to the delight of everyone present. There isn't much that's more photogenic than a bear cub clinging to the trunk of a tree. It didn't stay up there long though before mother bear called it down and they sauntered off into the forest.
After Jasper National Park our journey continued west, heading out of the Rockies, out of Alberta and into British Columbia. We were Whistler bound!
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Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
Wow!
Great footage and photos - very jealous! Looks like you're having an amazing time.