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Published: January 15th 2007
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Jasper
Main drag in Jasper. Behind the train was a chimney that was smoking away, I hoped to get a photo that looked like the train was steaming away, but the wind picked up and the steam blew away as soon as I got out of the car to take the photo :( Escape From Edmonton
Edmonton "Maul" + Boxing Day Sales = Bad Idea!
We really would have loved to spend a day at the water park and it might have been a good idea too in hindsight as we had quite a time trying to locate accomodation in Jasper! But the trick with the waterpark is that it has an early bird special that is more a "mid-day" special ideally engineered to force families to spend an extra night in Edmonton to get great value. If you rock up between 12noon and 4pm it's only $11...before or after that time entry is nearly $40...big difference!
So we cut our losses and scarpered...next stop Jasper.
Never use cruise control in cold environments!
Driving to Jasper from Edmonton is very uneventful. Wayne got a bit of a shock when he learned first hand why you should never use cruise control in cold climates...black ice. On a couple of uphill grades we encountered a couple while the cruise control was engaged...the engine goes nuts as it tries to accelerate to keep the speed up, result...car gets a little untidy. Fortunately, the van was front wheel drive and it's not too bad -
The pool at the Fairmont - Jasper Park Lodge
A heated pool when it's -15C outside is interesting. Your body is warm while your head freezes. One kid was complaining about all his hair turning to icicles. Lauren managed to round up every pool noodle and made a nest out of them! had it been rear wheel drive it could have been real fun...NOT!
Two rooms?
You'd think a town with as many hotels as Jasper finding two rooms wouldn't be too hard. Well interestingly enough we felt we had the pick of the place as there were minimal "no vacancy" signs. But wouldn't you believe it...every hotel we stopped in at only had exactly ONE room available! After 3 or 4 hotels where Cathy and I went in looking for rooms, I decided to stay in the car thinking that maybe I looked too much like a ratbag so they'd only offer one room. So Cathy went into the next hotel by herself...and they had NO ROOMS! (Don't kill me Cathy...just an observation! 😊. So it was looking like our only option was for us to book two rooms in neighboring hotels...but that's rhubarb!
So onto the last option...the
Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. One sprawling complex of log cabins set amidst pine groves and lakes with jaw-dropping scenery all round. Comes with appropriately jaw-dropping room rates. This baby costs at a minimum CDN$596 per room per NIGHT in the summer period. We snapped up two rooms at a bargain CDN$220 each per
Morning!
Would you believe that this is 8:30AM? A glorious day to go for a drive down the Icefields Parkway! night for 2 nights.
We settled in to our postcard palace, the haunt of Royalty (the Queen herself has stayed here), US Presidents, Hollywood stars (Marilyn Monroe notably), dumped our gear and headed back into down for some realistically priced grub.
Later that night, we played 500...one game, no winners, lasted for about 3 hours with no team winning or going out the back-door all night...that's never happened before. Usually it ends up in a fit of Misere bids and we either win or lose in spectacular fashion...no enough alcohol maybe?
Icefields Parkway
Why is it that in the US and Canada people drive on parkways and park in driveways?
The Icefields Parkway is one of the world's great drives. It's right up there with the Great Ocean Road as a place to take an automobile and go oooh and aaah for hours on end (without steaming the windows up that is). The mountains ever present as the drive progresses, get closer and bigger and more dramatic the further you go. Valleys are massive and then you get to the glaciers! In summer, the view would probably be more spectacular...solid granite lumps with blue ice encrusted
Kitschy Canada Photo
Mountains...snow...Canadian flag...there are just too many postcards that look like this. So here's one I prepared earlier :) in amongst it all...but in winter it was altogether surreal. We were driving on a road which was covered in patches of black ice, snowdrifts occasionally crossing the road, windswept snow blowing all over the place, brilliant sunlight glinting off blue glacial ice...it looks small from the road, but considering that we were a good few kilometres from the main part of the ice shelf itself...it would be a massive and bewildering thing to experience up close.
Being winter, everything was closed...except the road...but they were thinking about closing that too. Get a little careless in these icy conditions and you'll be finding out how much that excess is on your rental very quick.
In summary, if you ever make it to Canada...try fit this into your schedule...and be flexible. The weather can really ruin your day here! Pick a good day.
Laundry
Who really cares about laundry you'd think? Well...we decided to get a load of laundry done here and there's this laundromat in town that has about 40 washers and 40 dryer...real big ones. The woman running it claims that all the machines are all in use from 7am to 7pm every day in summer
Big, Hairy and Ugly...
Oh and there's a cute bear there too! with all the hikers. They have internet facilities in there and showers and do a good latte too. Ironically...there was a free washer/dryer combo in the next hotel we stayed at in Blue River!
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