ON TO BANFF NATIONAL PARK

One morning we hiked up the Parker Ridge trail.  It isn't too strenuous a hike and affords some fabulous views.  It is located a few kms south of the Athabasca Icefields.  This photo was taken from the parking lot.

Getting some elevation.  You can see the highway down below.

Up on the ridge.

For the best views of the Saskatchewan Glacier, its lake and the start of the river, just keep walking along the level following the path to the southeast.

We were camp at Rampart Creek Campground and two nights in a row I went about 5 or 6 kms north on the highway to a little wildlife viewing area/picnic area and spotted a mountain goat up on the mountain side.  Actually there were two the second night but one was really far up the hill.  I cropped this heavily from a 400mm shot.

Yesterday, we moved camp down to Castle Mtn Campground between Lake Louise and Banff on the Bow Valley Parkway.  Coming past Bow Lake, which is just south of Bow Pass and Peyto Lake, the reflections were marvelous!

Further down the highway, just before Lake Louise, Hector Lake wasn't too bad either.

Hector Lake

I had been having issues with my main camera, a Canon 5D Mark 2 for a couple days and in fact we aborted our hike at Peyto Lake when the camera refused to work.  After cleaning lens and camera contacts, I was able to sometimes jolly the camera into taking a picture.  The shot above is the second last photo it took.  Then it really got into some kind of snit.  Not only is the camera hooped, my main lens, the 24-105, also is refusing to work.  They will have to both be sent to Canon in Toronto to see if they are economically repairable.

After agonizing and researching, we drove into Calgary this morning and visited Robinson's Camera Store.  I came away with a new Canon 6D with a new 24-105 lens.  I'm hoping my old 5D can be repaired so I can use it for wildlife by permanently mounting my 100-400mm lens.  My older Canon Rebel just doesn't cut it for shooting wildlife because so often the light is low and the camera doesn't produce good images at more than 200 ISO.  I hope that's not too technical for everyone.

LAST DAY IN JASPER

Today is our last day in Jasper.  We're going to move down the Icefields Parkway into Banff National Park, most likely to Rampart Creek Campground.  We will probably not have any internet until we get to Lake Louise in a few days.  My laptop is giving me lots of grief.  It seems to have a chronic over heating problem and the computer specialist in Salmon Arm where I took it last spring told me that is the main reason he sees for HP laptops to expire.  I'm thinking I'd better buy another laptop before we head south as I live and breathe this thing.  I was trying to edit photos for today's blog and the computer just shut down in the middle of everything.  I already had it propped up on a book to allow air movement as well as sitting on a hard surface.  I decided to give up on the editing and get my last couple weeks of photo files saved to my external hard drive in case this computer totally crashes.  It was really slow doing the transfer so I have the whole computer raised off the platform using a battery charger as well as the book.  When it cooled off more, the speed picked up.  I suppose I will have to make the switch to Windows 8 and the associated learning curve.  I've been very pleased with Windows 7.

An evening drive south of Jasper

Athabasca Falls, can you see the face in the rocks?

Can you see the face now?

Caribou tracks at Medicine Lake.  No we didn't see any but there were lots of signs telling us to watch out for them.

Maligne Lake

Maligne Lake

On the road back from Maligne toward Medicine Lake

Medicine Lake.  There is  large river running in at the other end but nothing out of this end as Medicine Lake drains out the bottom.  The water re-surfaces miles downstream.

Mt Edith Cavell with Angel Glacier on the right

Cavell Lake

We were pretty surprised to have some horses suddenly appear across the lake while we were enjoying the peace and serenity of not a single human sound.  Upon investigation, we found a corral where five horses were kept for trail rides.

A WALK TO THE VALLEY OF FIVE LAKES

This gem of an area is just a few kilometers south of Jasper and the parking area is well signed.  if you go, I highly suggest you take the trail to the right on the way in and then the trail between lakes 4 and 5 for returning to the parking lot.   Continuing along lake 5 then way beyond  to where the trail forks back almost doubles the distance without a lot of worthy views.  

The first little stream we crossed

The five lakes are all different depths which gives each lake a different colour

Our lunch spot

There is another post from today that you can access by scrolling down the page or possibly clicking on "older post".  We paid for another couple nights here at Whistlers Campground so now it will be at least Thursday before we move down the road into Banff National Park.  There is still lots to see here.

MORE SHOTS FROM JASPER

Tangle Falls along the Icefields Parkway south of Jasper

Sorry, but here's a couple more elk pictures.  This is about 100 feet behind our motor home and I have included it for people from Wisconsin and Switzerland who were with me at the time.

Heading for his girlfriend

Athabasca River

Athabasca Falls south of Jasper

One of many such views near the Columbia Icefields

JASPER NATIONAL PARK

Cold Sulpher Spring.  This is right along the highway east of Jasper and we've always just blown past it.  This time, however, there was a geocache nearby so we stopped.  Good thing as the spring is interesting, if smelly, with different vegetation growing along the little creek which pops out of  a hole at the base of the rock.

Not to be missed if you're ever in Jasper, is the tram ride to the top of the mountain.  We lucked out on a great weather day!

Looking west from the top.  While we were here, we got to talking to another couple and found they were also from the Shuswap and he works with our son in law!

Mt Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies is 79 kms away.

Looking down at the top of the tram from the mountain top.

One of the cars coming up with the mid tower behind.

Tis the season for elk as the rut is on and the bulls are fairly aggressive and actively courting.  The sound of their bugling is often heard.  We had a close encounter with a particularly love crazed bull the other morning on the Lake Annette Trail.  I stood my ground in a covered seating area on the trail and he passed within six feet of me and eyeballed me for quite a while before finally moving on.  Unfortunately, he took the same trail Aileen and Mitzy had retreated on so I called for them to get off the trail into a thick clump of trees.  They did and the bull still spotted them and stood staring at them for some time before finally carrying on.  It was pretty unnerving for all of us!

Some nice evening reflections on some of the lakes east of Jasper

This big guy was by himself just across from the lake above

We spent three nights at the Snaring River Campground where the sites are fairly tight for bigger rigs and are completely in the trees so useless for solar power.  However, it was cheaper and quite peaceful and gave us closer access to the eastern side of Jasper Park.  Yesterday, we moved to Whistlers Campground just south of Jasper town.  While we couldn't get an electric hookup site, we managed to get 18K which is fairly open for solar.  Now we just need some sun as we have had a few mostly cloudy days.   We plan to stay a few days here then will move down further into Banff National Park which joins the southern end of Jasper. 

HEADING FOR JASPER NATIONAL PARK

Our plan is to move on from Donnelly, AB tomorrow heading for Jasper National Park.  Our internet will be fairly infrequent for the next couple of weeks or however long it takes us to wander down through the Rockies to Lake Louise then over to the Kootenays.  It is likely our cell phone will be mostly useless as well.  We've had a great two weeks visiting Judith and Doug but its time to move along now that the parks should be getting quieter.  Of course, the big problem in the mountain parks is that many of the campgrounds close the day after Labour Day so you are farther from many of the things you want to access.

Evening across the Canola field.  There are thousands of acres like this in this area, it is a dominant crop.  The other major crop is wheat.

More Canola in mid morning light

An old home that is being reclaimed by nature

While out geocaching the other day, we rode across the Peace River on the Tangent Ferry.  It only runs during the summer months.  Most years there is an ice bridge across for part of the winter. 

A little more modern barn

The community of Peace River, AB