Day 19 and Day 20 (17th and 18th of August) - The Wildlife Game

Day 19 and we are heading north east from Kamloops towards The Jasper National Park. We fill our little adventure mobile to the brim with fuel and start on our merry way. It seems to be the reverse of the previous days drive, which started in the rainy mountains of Whistler and ended in the dry landscape of Kamloops. Our drive today started in the dry of Kamloops, but it seemed every inch closer we got to Jasper the terrain got greener, more luscious and more beautiful. 

Our first stop on our 300+ km journey from Kamloops to Jasper, was a, completely unknown to us, waterfall called 'Rearguard Falls'. It was a completely off the cusp decision to stop and stretch our legs. However, it turned out to be a stroke of genius by Jo. Upon exiting the adventure mobile we read the following sign;

Both of us still not thinking much of it, like as if we are gonna see any super strong salmon trying to get up the waterfall?? Wrong!! We were absolutely gob smacked as we started to see the strongest salmon trying to make there way up the waterfall. We only saw about 5 or so jump and we were lucky enough to catch two of them on camera and one on film.

Pacific Chinook Salmon

Pacific Chinook Salmon

On the road again and we are both smiling like cheshire cats, still really excited as to what we had witnessed at the Rearguard Falls. Our next stop was at Mt Robson, which I am reliably informed is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies, unfortunately for us there was too much mist (We have been continually caught pondering to ourselves, Gorillas??) around for us to see the peak, so we chucked some more fuel in the car and continued on.

There's Mount Robson, see it?

We criss crossed the 'Rocky Mountaineer' railway line on our drive and managed to spot the train on a few occasions.

On approaching The Jasper National Park we decided to play a Wildlife spotting game. We thought each animal we visualed could be worth a certain numbers of points, loosely based on how 'cool' we thought the animal is and how rare they are in the wild. Scores are as follows;

• Squirrel - 1 point
• Hawk - 2 points
• Bald Eagle - 5 points
• Deer - 10 points
• Mountain Goat - 15 points
• Elk -  20 points
• Big Horned Sheep - 25 points
• Caribou - 30 points
• Moose - 50 points
• Bear - 100 points (200 points with cubs)
• Wolf - 2000 points

And the scoring was under way shortly after arriving in The Jasper National Park when we spotted a large Elk (20 points) grazing on the side of the road.

Drive by shooting of the Elk. Photography, of course.

We arrived in Jasper at approx. 1600, Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). We lost one hour of our day when we crossed the Alberta border. After tracking down our very nice B&B we headed out for a drive, we drove out to the Miette Hot Springs, about 45mins drive north of Jasper. It was a nice drive and a great opportunity to spot some wildlife, but essentially the 'hot springs' was a bath temperature public swimming pool (la piscine) so we refrained from having a dip. On the drive we saw two Elk (40 points) and a family of Mountain Goat (75 points).

Roche Miette

Suicidal Kid

On arriving home we headed to The Brew Pub for some craft beer and some food. We had the famous local cuisine 'Poutine' for dinner. Poutine is basically chips with gravy and cheese curds, we had a slightly disgusting slant on the tradition which involved sour cream and bacon, of course. We were able to manage a sickly stumble back to our accommodation after dinner and a couple of drinks.

Works Poutine

Pulled Pork Sliders

Day 20 was an absolutely humongous day of wonder and adventure. We are going to blog this day in dot points, hopefully we will still be able to successfully elaborate our experience while still being concise enough to use dot points. We find blogging is like reading a novel for hipster's, so consider a dot point blog as Red Bull for hipster's. A big exciting hit of literary perfection followed by a empty down feeling of wanting more!!

• Pyramid Lake - A lake close to Jasper Village, a couple of sleepy heads possibly didn't see this attraction for what it was. There was a mysterious mist hovering over the lake, that believe it or not was surrounded be a bevy of stunning peaks. We had a Bald-Eagle (5 points) swoop the car as if we were a delicious salmon.

Mitch surrounded by mist at Pyramid island/lake

• Back to the B&B to regroup and pack the car.
• Malinge Lake - We are starting to see clearer now after a couple of caffeinated eye openers. Maligne lake is famous for its water colour and it's glacier covered surrounding peaks. Unfortunately for us the water colour was not in full brilliance, so we quickly jumped in the car and hit the round before the masses of people arrived in their tour buses.

Maligne Lake 

Medicine Lake on way to Maligne

• Mt Edith Cavell - We are now on the road to Banff and our first stop was Mt Edith Cavell. We climbed 14km of steep winding road to reach the famous Angel glacier. The peak of the mountain dwarfed us as we walked the trail towards the glacier viewpoints. 

Angel Glacier

• Athabasca Falls - Know as the most powerful and breathtaking falls of the Canadian Rockies.  The power of the falls pounding into the rocks below sent mist flying in all directions. 

Athabasca Falls

Squirrel (1point)

• Columbian Icefield's - Is a group of glaciers about half way between Jasper and Banff. The glaciers are visible from the road and we could feel the cold of the ice with the windows down.

Columbian Icefields

• Lake Louise and Moraine Lake - We were 2/3 of the way to Banff before we reached Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Both of these lakes are very well known and were both very very crowded with tourists. We found it hard to relax and absorb the real beauty of these destination due to the amount of other tourist. However, it is hard to deny the absolute beauty of these lakes. The colours, the mountains, the glaciers and I'm sure witnessing them in isolation would multiply their beauty.

Lake Louise

Moraine Lake

• Icefield's Parkway - The Icefield's Parkway is the name given to the road between Jasper and Banff. This drive has to be among the most incredible drives in the world. It is literally a photo a second operation, while driving you have to let your eyes relax and take in the sheer breathtakingness (breathtakingness - possibly made up word) of the landscape around you. Mind blowing mountains complemented with the most glorious glaciers. Lake after lake of the most stunning blue, green colours. Waterfalls that gush out of the side of mountains and pound the rocks below with huge force. Never forgetting to keep an eye out for wildlife (or a large group of stopped cars), we were extremely privileged today to witness a Grizzly Bear and two cubs (200 points) frolicking around the shores of a lake. The whole experience of driving this road that delicately weaves it way through nature is defiantly something that we will never forget and highly recommend to anyone!!

Bear and cubs. That little brown/black dot and the other little black dot.

Bow Lake & Mount Thompson

We arrived in Banff at 1800 (MDT) exhausted from a huge day of travelling and site seeing.