Sunwapta to Jasper

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Today has been a relatively quiet day. We only had a short distance of about 34 miles to drive to our next stop in Jasper, so we had plenty of time to appreciate the sights along the way. In fact the first visit to the Sunwapta Falls was literally just down the road. A very impressive waterfall, we have now seen so many we feel we are quite expert on their relative values. We also hiked down to the Lower Sunwapta Falls, which were if anything even more impressive and decidedly quieter.



We then continued our journey along the Icefields Parkway and I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog the excellent guide book, which we have been lent by friends, that we are using for this drive. It gives a very detailed description of each of the many stops with the distances between them and has been invaluable ( thanks C & A).

Another of the highlights of this drive is the Athabasca Falls. This is one of the most spectacular waterfalls we have ever seen and the power and volume of the water has cut into the hard quartzite rock, causing deep potholes, canyons and channels. There are various different viewpoints here and we must have spent over 30 minutes just admiring these incredible falls.

We then visited Horseshoe Lake, which, oddly enough, is shaped like a horseshoe. It was of course a lovely blue - green colour and had a sign saying there was no lifeguard there, so we assume it is sometimes used for swimming. It is in places surrounded by a steep cliff and there was a group of people rock climbing.

We had now reached the end of the Parkway and planned to do a small hike near Jasper, before checking into our B&B. However the road to it's trail head was shut due to roadworks, so we had a fraught 10 minutes finding an alternative route. It was however worth it, as the trail, called Old Fort Point, rose very steeply initially, to give us a magnificent view of the Athabasca valley. It was about a 4 mile round trip and as we neared the end we experienced our only wildlife encounter of the day, when a longish snake of unknown origins, shot or slithered across the path right in front of us. Apparently I nearly stood on him!!

When we had safely arrived back at Dora, we saw some white water rafts coming down the river. One of us thinks that looks like fun, but the other is not too sure. Too much water splashing about. Watch this space!!

We are now settled in our lovely B&B home for the next 3 nights.

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