Entry 11. – The Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Continuing
onwards we arrived at Jasper 5.30 pm, our first Canadian Rocky Mountains
destination. With the availability of phone and internet reception we
discovered it was the Australian Football League grand final day. We spent the
evening, (10.30 pm to 2.30 am) in one of Jaspers pubs watching the football. It
was a quiet atmosphere as it seemed all the customers were barracking for our
team the Adelaide Crows with our players showing up but failed to dominate as
they had all year.
The dismal
atmosphere continued the following day with light drizzle most of the day. We
walked along the Maligne Canyon, listening to the roar of thundering water that
was rushing through the base of the canyon often out of sight deep down in
narrow chiselled crevices.
Unfortunately,
good photography was inhibited by a dull wet day.
We continued
down the road towards Maligne Lake in wet conditions that continued to
deteriorate. There was a heavy flow of vehicles travelling back from Maligne
Lake and we decided at about ½ way to also execute a U turn in diminishing fog
conditions.
We travelled
to Lake Pyramid and Patricia Lake which were both wind swept. At one point we
took a wrong turn to Patricia Lake and spotted a couple of moose in amongst the
woods. Sighting the moose provided a great highlight for the day. We could see
plenty of potential at Jasper but unfortunately with constant light rain and low-level
cloud cover hiding the views, the weather wasn’t working for us.
Our first
night at Jasper we stayed in the National Parks Whistler campground in an
allocated site but the site was on a slope which was like most other sites and
to top it off the shower block was about a 10 – 15-minute walk away.
The second
night we relocated to the National Parks Wapiti campground a couple of minutes
further down the road where we obtained a powered site in a once used parking
lot. We were hoping to utilize the air conditioner for heating as the nights
temperature was expected to be around 0 C. Unfortunately, the roof mounted air conditioner
only blew cold air even with heat controls displayed. It seems in America and
Canada all heating is propane based and we utilized the motorhomes propane
furnace for heating. We had been concerned about excess gas usage, (fridge ran
around the clock on gas including when driving) and we were slowly adjusting to
needing to get the gas bottle refilled regularly instead of once every 4 months
in Australia as we do with our rig.
Due to the
ongoing dismal weather impeding the potential beautiful scenic views we
commenced our journey south towards Lake Louise, travelling along the iconic.”
Icefields Parkway,” stopping at many different locations along the route.
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| Athabasca Falls |
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| Athabasca Falls |
The further
south we travelled the more stunning the scenery became. The Icefields Parkway
was aptly named for this section of road we were travelling.
Late
afternoon we arrived at the Icefield Centre another highly publicised location
where you can travel on a giant all-terrain Ice Explorer vehicle onto Athabasca
Glacier. The large building was flooded with Asian tourists whom most were
travelling in tour groups by bus. There was a 24 hour wait till the next
available seat. Leaving the exorbitant price to go with the glacier walk in our
pockets, we decided on the next best option where you can walk along the face
of the glacier (within about 150 metres) at no cost. The cold air temperature
felt like it was biting at our skin, sapping our energy even though we were rugged
up with all our cold weather clothing. It even started to lightly snow during
our walk.
It was
getting quite late and we decided to spend the night in the Icefield carpark
which was permitted for self-contained vehicles which we were. It was a
magnificent location with uninterrupted views of the glacier and surrounding
snow peaked mountains.
We went to
bed wearing warm clothing and hoping our motorhome plumbing would not freeze,
damaging the pipes. During the night for short periods we turned on the furnace
to combat the chill in the air including leaving the ensuite door and door
under the sink open to assist with prevention of freezing pipes. A notice in
the motor home advised not to leave the furnace on for any longer than 2 hours
between charging as it would leave the vehicle battery flat from draining too
much power.
We had been
leaving our mouse traps loaded, resulting with a further four mice being
ejected this cold evening which brought our count to eleven mice ejected from
the motorhome. Unbelievable! The motorhome compliance plate showed a build date
of March 2017 with 18,000 kilometres on the clock.
We woke in
the morning to falling snow providing a very different scene.
We were
nervous about driving on snow covered roads, staying put for a few hours
spending time in the information centre and once the snow had disappeared from
the road we continued along the Icefields Parkway with a dramatically changed setting.
Instead of snow covered mountain peaks we were now being tantalised with
mountains covered in snow. There were many stops throughout the day viewing
splendid scenes which we didn’t tire from, all a little different. We started
out the day with a fully charged camera battery which was close to being flat
by the days end. Even our necks were sore from constantly being barraged with
jaw dropping scenery high up in the sky, down in the valleys below, to our left
and right.
Some of the
information we had been reading said the Icefields Parkway had been recognized
as one of the top ten scenic drives in the world which we could understand.
Late
afternoon we set camp about 20 kilometres short of Lake Louise parking in
amongst some trees hoping to stay off some of the cold at Mosquito campground
minus the mosquitos.
We had heard
parking at Lake Louise could be difficult to obtain and we headed to Lake
Louise early arriving at about 8.45 am to find the carpark nearly half full. It
was very cold with the sun hidden by the surrounding tall mountains. Lake
Louise looked quite impressive and it was already crowded with busloads of
tourists. It was very cold and we returned to the motorhome for breakfast and a
hot cuppa before venturing out again hoping for a bit of warming sunshine.
We walked to
the other end of the lake and found it a bit disconcerting when you stepped on
puddles of water to find them still frozen solid at mid-day.
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| Look closely at the frozen water falls |
Mid-afternoon
we set up camp in the local campground finding a sunny location where we sat
outside soaking in some beautiful sunshine, having some rare chillout time.
Next on our wish list was Lake Moraine located about 17 kilometres north and we
had been told by one of the rangers that it was a smallish carpark and can be
full at 7.30 am. With the alarm set for 6 am, we were at the Lake Moraine carpark at 6.50 am and it was already a
quarter full. Still dark it was easy in the motorhome where we didn’t venture
outside, stepping into the back for breakfast and a hot cuppa, waiting for the
arrival of day light.
We enjoyed a
quiet walk to Consolation Lakes alongside the flowing waters from Quadra Glacier.
There were plenty of frozen curtains of stalactites floating just above
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A rock slide made the track feel like goat country
|
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| Plenty of Ice Curtains amongst the flowing water |
On our
return from our hike we propped to view the change of the view at Lake Moraine
produced by the changing height of the sun and appearance of cloud cover
Early
afternoon we viewed the township of Lake Louise and slowly made our way to
Banff about 50 kilometres down the road.
Driving along
the back roads we even saw a couple of deer.
After a long
day we set camp at Banff, had tea and were in bed fast asleep by 7.15 pm.
In the
morning Steve went to the washrooms (toilet block) and had another one of those
1st life experiences. An Asian lad had his pots and pans soaking in
the toilet bowl.
During the
evening we had ejected mouse number 12 from the motorhome. We had been hoping
our mouse problem was resolved and were getting annoyed with the need to clean plates,
cutlery, etc before use. Four days prior we had sent an email to the motor home
hire company, Cruise Canada / America notifying of our hygiene concerns with no
response. In frustration, seeking advice on how we could address the mouse
issue we phoned Cruise Canada first thing in the morning with an outcome where
we drove to Calgary, swapped vehicles and returned to Banff a round trip of
about 300 kilometres, resulting in a whole day lost to hopefully solving the
mouse problems.
Whilst in
the campground we saw a moose grazing near one of the buildings oblivious to us
humans.
The weather
forecast for the next few days was predicted to be miserable, wet and cold. We
drove to one of Banff’s lookouts and walked around some of the towns garden
area. It was cold with a wind chill factor feeling like zero degrees creating
an uncomfortable outside setting.
We drove to
the Johnston Canyon Falls walking along a catwalk built above the running water
along the canyon. It was reputed to be the most spectacular natural feature in
Banff National Park and it was crowded with people. It was still cool but
protected from the chilly wind.
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