Jasper National Park–Northern Section

We drove East and entered Jasper National Park and, at the same time, Alberta.  The Jasper National Park sign (below) was the worst we’ve seen, it looked like a construction information sign.  Step it up Canada! 

 

 

 

It was clear when we got to the entrance gate that they should have had plenty of money to pay for a more interesting park sign. When the lady said $19 PER DAY we were floored.  And we thought US National Parks were a little expensive.  Well we ponied up and paid for two days and headed toward the town of Jasper.  We had seen that all the campgrounds were full except for overflow camping at one site so we headed there before it filled up.

When we got there we saw a giant field with people free-for-alling anywhere they could find a flat spot.  There were RVs everywhere. It cost another $15 to camp there. We pitched our tent and drove north to the Miette Hot Springs.  On the way we were stopped on the side of the road by people taking pictures of a black bear and her cubs eating on the side of the road.  You can see said black bear’s butt in this picture. Because of the no pets policy at the hot springs (this nicely seems to be an exception, Canada national parks seem to be pretty dog friendly overall, unlike US national parks) Em went alone for a dip in the springs.  Other than a kid pooping in one of the pools she had a good time, and the hot water helped loosen up her sore neck a little. The hot springs was one of the few things that didn’t cost an arm and a leg so far in Canada, only $6.

Jay stayed with Hoggle and went for a short walk to see the source of the springs, which were very sulphury.  Jay cooked dinner (tortellini) while Em was soaking and had a beer.  When she got back the pasta and beer made Jay really tired so he decided not to soak and we just headed back to camp.  We found when we got back that the place had filled with even more RVs.  But everyone was quiet, except the freight train, through the night.  Though the train wasn’t too loud where we were, this night. We set some traps up for the mouse before heading to bed in the tent.

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We awoke to sunny skies, no sign of our friend/enemy Ralphie the mouse, and decided to head to Maligne Lake for a boat cruise.  On our way we stopped in town to pick up some groceries.  Jay talked to the info desk too and found that a boat cruise was $60/person and renting a canoe was about $90/day.  Not worth the cost to us, but we went to the lake anyway. 

We first stopped at Maligne Canyon, a narrow limestone canyon (slot canyon really) cut by the river.  We couldn’t go down there because of the river, but apparently in winter you can.  There is a tall loud waterfall in the canyon as well, pretty cool.

 

On the way we saw some big horn sheep at a salt lick on the side of the road.  That backed up traffic a little bit.  At the lake we parked at a trailhead and explored the shore for a while.  The clouds had rolled in and the mostly cloudy sky put a damper on the nice color of the lake.  It was still pretty though. 

 

 

Jay trotted out alone to do the Bald Hills hike, which climb the ridge to the west of the lake.  It was a decently long and steep hike to reach the summit.  On the ridge line up to the summit Jay saw marmots (a different species it appears from the ones in Colorado), chipmunks, and the elusive and hard to photograph Pica (a type of mouse).  The partly cloudy skies and the cool wind made the hike a little brisk, but nothing shorts and a sleeveless shirt couldn’t manage.

Jay found the van locked up and Em missing when he got back.  He ran out of water with a couple of kilometers to go so he sat thirsty reading his book (which he managed to fish out of the open window of the van). 

When Em returned shortly thereafter, having taken Hoggle for a quick walk, we all packed up and headed back for the camp site. We saw an elk on the way back. Since it was well past when the guard leaves to check people in, we just drove into the “campground,”  aka field for free this time and found a nice spot under the trees with a picnic table. The place was all but empty this time.  Only a handful of RVs were there, as opposed to nearly 100 yesterday. Sunday vs. Saturday night we guess.

We ate some dinner and played chase with Hoggle around the van.  He was really into it.  Then we set our mouse traps and hit the hay.  And we fully discovered the camping next to a major Canadian Hwy and the most active freight train line we’ve ever heard wasn’t good idea. This road and rail were just through the trees, and when the trains come once every thirty minutes or so it’s loud.  You can’t ignore it loud.  The ground shakes a little bit.  It was noisy as hell. And even noisier in the tent than it would have been in the van.

Jay probably didn’t get to sleep until about 3am when utter exhaustion finally took over.  We both barely slept that night.  But we woke up at around 8am or so by Hoggle; so it wasn’t too too bad.  We were greeted by a park service worker telling us she was locking the gate at 11am so beat it.  So we did. The mouse took some of the bait, but did not get caught in any of the traps. Sly devil. We had only set about 8 of them, four different types, just to cover our bases. And we are no novice mice catchers – we’ve dealt with the little buggers before. This guy is good. And we were finding that he only seems to be active every other night, which means every night he takes bait and doesn’t get caught – it’s at least two more nights for us in the tent. Bummer.

We went back to Jasper the town to pick up some more groceries and then drove back toward Mt Robson park.   

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UP NEXT: Same shit, different day.