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Jasper Park Black Bear
The biggest I've ever seen. I was ignorant of Jasper National Park before this trip and really hadn't put it on my intinerary. But, thanks to Zoe, Simon & Rob for telling me I had to go. More mindblowing places. Driving through I just kept telling myself, "It never ends." Meaning the absolutely spectacular scenery. Quite a few people have told me that the Canadian Rockies were probably even more spectacular than the Rockies in the US and I always thought that they had to be wrong. Well, I haven't seen all of the US Rockies but they may be right. You drive for over 200 miles and every mile is astounding. There are beaucoup glaciers everywhere in the huge mountains. I could have taken a thousand pictures. (And almost did). By the way, great weather again. Fair and 60's. I just know I'm going to catch rain soon, which I have expected watching the forecasts.
Ths biggest thing to see and do is drive the Icefield Parkway and visit the Columbia Icefield. On the way there, I saw 2 black bears, a lot of Bighorn Sheep, a couple elk and bunches of mountain goats. The animals I haven't seen in the wild that I
Jasper
Bighorn Sheep. would like to see on this trip are: Grizzly Bear, Moose and Caribou.
Finally, I got to the Columbia Icefield. Once again, pictures can't give you the full idea of how immense it is. When I first got there, I saw a large bus-like coach on humongous wheels and then saw one driving on the glacier. I knew I had to do this. I lucked out and one was leaving in 5 minutes and so I went. Pretty cool to walk on a glacier. The driver said that glacial water is the purest water there is-no bacteria of any kind. He said it would be OK to drink some, so I filled my water bottle and drank it for the next hour or two. It WAS delicious, even without vodka! The Icefield is at the top of the mountains and the glacier is coming toward the road. 100 years ago, the glacier went across the road and covered the parking lot there. The Icefield is over 320 square kilometers, approximately 190 square miles!
After leaving there I drove and drove with my head staring into the mountains and then reached Athabasca Falls. Very beautiful. As I mentioned in
an earlier entry, the Rockies received a buttload of snow this spring and the snow melt is almost over and the streams and rivers are really high. At the falls there were two of the Bentleys again. I also met a most interesting woman named Lucy. This woman loves to talk as much as I do! Quite the gal, though. She is from Melbourne, Australia. I thought I was driving a lot. She started out in Boston and is going to Alaska by herself. I believe she said she has already driven 6000 miles on her trip. Oh, and she's been there several times. This time she's going to take a tour trip up to Prudhoe Bay. She said, "I want to dip my toe in the Arctic Ocean." And, by the way, she's already done it in the Antarctic Ocean! Truly the people you meet are the best part of traveling.
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Harbour Heights
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Those are some really nice pictures, sounds like you had a good time!