Tuesday 26th June - Jasper National Park

Wild Lupins

The UNESCO Trail North is one of the most spectacular drives: It covers the largest body of parkland in the world, where the national parks of Jasper, Banff, Kootenay and Yoho together with provincial parks, make up the Rocky Mountain National Park World Heritage Site, that straddles the Continental Divide. Truly magnificent scenery.

Continental Divide

After breakfast, we checked out at 9.15 and headed to "downtown" Valemount in search of a drug store that could supply a little something to banish the mosquitos! We then continued along Highway 5 North, before joining Highway 16 and crossing into Alberta Province. Alberta is the home of the Wild Rose and the road signs were now in dual language.Oh! and the clocks go forward one hour.
The day proved to be one of sunshine with cloud over the mountains.We entered the park at Mount Robson which at 3954mtrs/12,000ft  is the highest point in The Rockies. Jasper Park Reserve was created in 1907 & there is a toll charge to enter the park. We arrived in Jasper at lunchtime and headed straight for the Tourist Information Centre to find accommodation. We picked at random from a list of available properties, phoned and met the owner and booked for two nights. Bliss! This was the first time since leaving Vancouver that we would styay in any one place for 2 nights. We had a self contained basement appartment in a private detatched house.  In the evening we walked into Jasper and found it to be a thriving, bustling place, one that we liked very much.

Totem Pole at Train Station

Apartment in Jasper

With Jasper Bear

We ate at Earls, sitting outside on the wrap around balcony. Our only disappointment was that we didn't have a camera as the sun raced over the mountains.




The atmosphere was really good and on our way back to teh apartment we visited the Jasper Art Group's exhibition in The Old Fire Station.
How nice it felt to go to bed, knowing that teh day after we would have the day there: no packing and moving on!