Tuesday June 15th, Whistler Campground, Jasper AB

Miles 160

Todays drive on the Icefields Parways would rate up there with one of the best.

The rain poured down overnight and it was pretty grey and dismal when we got up. Didn’t rush because of the weather but by the time we left we could see patches of blue sky.

The mountains right through are just so majestic and stunning with lots of snow higher up with many glaciers. The rivers and lakes are that beautiful turquoise colour.

We had the odd shower until we got to Crowfoot Glacier, the temperature kept dropping until it was 4 degrees and the spits of rain turned into snow. We sat in the van and had lunch as the snowflakes slowly drifted down, mostly melting as they hit the ground although for a short perioed the trees had a little white dusting. Just beautiful to watch

The temperatures rose as we drove on, and we left Banff National Park and entered Jasper NP. The road climbed to over 6000 feet and we stopped at the Athabasca Glacier, a great site.

The only disappointment was not seeing any bears…people were telling us that we were sure to see some on the drive. The only wildlife we spotted was a bunch of mountain goat and a deer grazing on the roadside.

At one stop we chatted with a guy on his Harley, who had driven up from Southern Alberta for a day trip to Jasper. He had a heated jacket and trousers under his leathers that he plugged in to keep him warm, along with heated hand grips.

Thought we would stop at a small campground about 30 kms out of Jasper on a lake, and were really looking forward to it, only to find that I hadn’t read all the notes and it didn’t open until June 24^th. The only one open was just out of Jasper, a very big park, but very nice set in Aspens and looking up on the mountain. Saw an elk walking through the trees but didn’t have time to get my camera.