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Woke early, up @6am, 29deg. Left Tunnel Mountain Campground at 8 AM. Headed back onto Route 1 west toward Lake Louise.
Speed limit of 90 km/h (55mph) is perfect speed to view all the mountains along the way. There are several overpasses on this route built especially for wildlife to cross over the highway which cost more than $1 million each, which are covered with earth, grass, trees and bushes to correspond to the natural hanitat of The wildlife in the area. After the construction they installed automatic cameras to see how many animals cross back-and-forth and it turns out they were successful in creating a natural bridge.
Despite the fact that it was a Sunday and before 9 o'clock the traffic was already starting to build up for Lake Louise which is a popular destination. Be sure to go before 11 AM. This stretch of highway 93 between Lake Louise in Jasper is called the Icefields Parkway, and it is one of the most scenic drives in North America.
I have the Gypsy Guide app on my iPhone which plays along and tells you what you are seeing as you pass by. It's a worthwhile app and I think
it was only $4.99 for the Icefields Parkway. They have apps for other parts of the country so you should check it out . The narrator starts out by giving you a basic geology lesson as how the Icefields formed and pushed up the mountains that you see over millions of years ago. One interesting point regarding how the tectonic plates move was the narrator's description that they move at the same speed that your fingernails grow, so you can imagine how long it took for all of this to form. I tried to capture the beauty of the mountains in the pictures I've taken, but as I mentioned previously, you really ought to see it yourself and experience the Canadian Rockies in all their majesty. Talk about endorphin rush, OMG . One place that Ray recommended we try to say was Peyto Lake which was closed when they came by two years ago. There was a big crowd waiting to go up to the Peyto Lake viewpoint and there was a recent snow about 4" or 5". Al, Sue Tom and Peggy decided not to give it a go but I was determined and Dorrie was willing to join
me for the climb though it what was ice hardened snow and very slippery. Hand-in-hand we climb the slippery trail and after about a half an hour reached the viewpoint. It was well worth the climb viewing the Lakr and the Peyto Glacier 700' below the viewpoint. A ranger came by and suggested we take a different path down which was actually the road to the parking lot this was much easier than the trail we had come up. The round trip is about an hour . Back in our RVs and we continued down the icelands Parkway to more Majestic views of all the mountains on the east and west side of the roadway. We stop next at the Columbia Icefields as we wanted a chance to take a ride on the glacier . However, the crowds were crazy and you had to buy two tickets to both the glacier and glacier skywalk to the west. However, we were only interested in seeing the Columbia glacier so after taking e few photos , we headed back up the Parkway. The next stop was Athabasca Falls which is off the main road anout 4/10 of a mile. Athabasca Falls drops
just 40 feet but it is through a short, narrow canyon and the site is worth the stop. The total length of the Icefields Parkway is miles and once we finish this portion we continued on Canada 93 toward Hinton our destination for the night. Peggy wanted to stop in Jasper for a souvenir sweatshirt from the town. Al and Sue opted to go on to Hinton ahead of us and settle into Jasper/Hinton KOA where we to stay that night. We walked around Jasper for about a 1/2 hr and it is a quaint little town. Actually Dorrie and I liked it better than Banff.
We had been running low on propane so Tom &I I left the girls shopping and went looking for is filling station for the propane. We finally found but it was on the corner of an impossible intersection and getting in and out of it would have proven very difficult. So, we called the girls and told them we'd pick them up along the main street which we did and headed toward Hinton.
It was a long day but we had a great time on this ninth day of our grade adventure.
Miles
today ---233
Total 2151
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Pat & Butch
non-member comment
My O My
Beautiful pics! Travel views seem to agree with all of you! Quentin - looks like you have lots of frost on your face but Dorrie must have an invisible face heater as no sign of frost on her soft complexion.