Tuesday, June 25
After sleeping in til 8, we made blueberry pancakes in the van with my homemade maple syrup for breakfast. Then we started out on the Icefields Parkway to pick up where we left off yesterday heading north. We did stop again at Herbert Lake and Waterfowl Lake for some reflection and the mountains first.
Once we passed the Columbia Icefield and its several glaciers, we were in Jasper NP. Last time we were here in 2010, they had snocoach tours of the glacier, but it has receded so much since then (thank you global warming) that they now only do bus tours to an overlook and take some passengers by van to the glacier. It’s kinda sad to see so much change so fast.
The next photo stops were at Sunwapta Falls, Athabasca Falls, and Mount Edith Cavell with Angel Glacier.
Then we stopped in the town of Jasper to renew our park pass for another day (it expired at 4 pm), see the historic train station and totem pole, and grab some pizza before heading to the Maligne Canyon, Medicine Lake, and Maligne Lake area on the eastern side of the park.
I would say that there is a noticeable difference between Jasper and Banff national parks. Jasper is more wild and rugged with fewer tourists while Banff is more boreal and polished and has greater infrastructure for tourism. Today, for example, we saw a huge male elk, bighorn sheep, bald eagles, and a black bear in Jasper. We exited Jasper at the northern end taking 16Emeast about an hour to a Walmart parking lot in Hinton, where we camped overnight.
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