Blogs from Jasper, Alberta, Canada, North America - page 11

So after an 18 hour bus trip from Anchorage back in to Canada.. 2 nights in a northern town called whitehorse... then a 36 hour bus trip down to Jasper... i was home- well back in the rockies anyhoo!!! Man it felt nice to see my mountains again! Looking through photos really shows me the beauty of this place and how lucky i've been to spend all this time here :-) We spent 3 nights in Jasper (bout 3 hours north of Banff) And here we went to the Maligne Canyon and Lake.. Wow this was so pretty! Because of all the snow we got through winter the canyon was flowing fast and hard! It was cool to see it like this and not all frozen! And the lake was just awesome! It was nice ... read more

Border Crossing No problem with crossing into Canada. There were more questions about weapons and guns than I remember being asked in the past. There were the usual alcohol questions, but no real questions about food or wood. Cost of things in Canada The exchange rate at a bank on June 11th was $1.0391 US for every $1.00 Canadian. We exchanged $100 US at a bank in Canmore, Alberta. There was a $3 fee for the exchange, so we ended up with $100.91 Canadian. Most stores accept US dollars as an even exchange, so it’s really not worth changing funds to Canadian at this time, but it is nice to carry some local currency. Gas today in Jasper was $1.129/liter which h is about $4.12/gallon US. Diesel was $.889/liter which is about $3.24/gallon US. We don’t ... read more

Jasper Revisited The Columbia Ice Field Highway, Jasper, Lake Louis and Banff are places to be revisited Fifteen years later the town is much as it was. The tourist office and the railroad station are in the same place; as are the tracks. The shops have increased in number and the facilities offered seem to have been extended. Only few views are familiar. The truck arrived early thru morning rain and after a rained on breakfast of eggs and toast. For a second night we had camped at the side of the road...this time on a logging trail. The fire was built in a sandy clearing where cut trees had already been burnt. The tents were pitched on the flatness of the road. Huge transports struggling up a mountain grade was the nightlong lullaby. A ... read more

Now Banff is an amazing little town with so much beauty, but this wasnt enough for me.... i was getting itchy feet and wanted to do some more exploring. So Bianca and I convinced a friend of ours Haydn (who had just busted his ankle boarding and was bored of sitting round) To drive us to a little town three hours away called Jasper. The drive there is rated as one of the top ten drives in the world... so we were all really excited.... but just our luck- the day we left it was cloudy, misty and snowing... ah great we wont see much, oh well the misty atmosphere was actually quite enchanting. We could see the start of mountains... just not the top. The road was covered in snow and we were reduced ... read more

Flying from Belfast to London, Lindsey and I spent a few days just outside of London in Egham with Joanna who is studying there. We enjoyed the sites and sounds of London during the day..and during the nights spent time with Joanna in the student district of Egham. After a sad departure from London and a long but entertaining (the plane had personal tvs) flight we were back in Edmonton. Strange to be back in the snow but really nice to see family! Heading almost straight from the airport to Jasper it was like I was placed right back where life left off! Spending a few days up in Jasper snowboarding and then back to Edmonton for the week! ... read more