Trip log: RV Trip to Alaska 2014 |
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7/18/2014 Day 72 Layover day in Jasper, AB The body count for today is: 6 elk; 4 bears including 2 cubs; one fleeting caribou. We took the drive out to Maligne Canyon and beyond to Maligne Lake. Coming back we saw a clump of people and cars and assumed there was an animal. The caribou was a large bull with a full rack, but because of the trees he was difficult to see. Of course, you trip over elk here in Jasper everywhere you go, so they were no surprise.
Maligne Canyon is a very deep and narrow slot canyon that makes it nearly impossible to see the raging creek at the bottom. Most places it is only 10-15 feet wide. Several foot bridges cross it with excellent views and descriptive signage. It began life as a limestone cave whose top caved in.
Next we drove up to Mt. Edith Cavell, named for a WWI nurse who was executed by the enemies. Angel Glacier is visible here hanging off the side of a mountain, flanked by a near vertical wall to the north. It’s a very busy place at the end of a very windy, narrow road. Coming back down we saw a mama bear and two very young cubs off the right side of the road.
Then it was back into Jasper for KFC and “home” to eat it with wine. We walked down to the entrance to kill our reservation in the campground for tomorrow night and saw no elk anywhere. A German tourist came to ask if he could plug into our power to charge his computer, which we allowed. I counted 7 unoccupied spaces in this loop at 7 PM; seems like a lot for this late. |
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7/17/2014 Day 71 McBride, BC to Jasper, Alberta; 101 miles We left around 8, dumped and filled, and headed east. It was raining lightly and intermittently. We encountered some road construction, but generally the road was good all the way. On the way we saw one surprised black bear beside the road, one somewhat befuddled Canadian goose and one probable moose crossing some distance away. One surprise at Jasper is that the National Park entrance fee is not just $8.30 per person as we thought from reading Milepost, but $8.30 per person per day for as long as you are traveling or camping in the park. So $83 for us for an estimated 5 days. An annual pass for 2-7 people in one car is $117.
Whistler Campground is about 2 miles down the Icefield Parkway. We have reservations for three nights at $34.15 per night including reservation fee with no hookups in site 29-S. A dump is available. Generator hours are 8-9:30 AM and 5-7 PM; not convenient for us. We will stay only 2 nights; we now have 2 night reservations at Lake Louise for Sunday and Monday at $39.05 per night including the reservation fee. This is an expensive place to visit! If you add up the Park fees, the campground fees and the reservation fees it totals $247 CDN for 5 nights between Jasper and Banff. |
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We’ve been here before with Gracie and there were elk all around us. Shortly after we parked today a young bull elk came by in front of the Jeep. Then we saw three young cows. Then, after going into town for ice cream and coming back, there were at least eleven elk all around the campsite, some very young calves still with spots. The young bull was lying down as we came into loop 29. His antlers are still in velvet; late for that, I would think. We drove up the road to see the aerial tramway that goes up to a 7500 foot peak. Nope, nuh-huh. Nada. Not going on that.
Jasper has great long rumbling trains going through in both directions about every half hour. They are very slow and the crossing into town from the campground is frequently blocked. I counted 150 cars and three engines on one at the rate of about 1 car every 3 seconds. And, maddeningly, they stop the train with two cars left, blocking the crossing. It’s still cloudy and raining intermittently all day. |
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7/19/2014 Day 73 Whistler Campground in Jasper, AB to Rampart Creek Campground; 90 miles After dumping and filling, we left Whistler and drove into town for gasoline and bakery goodies. We drove separately 18 miles south on the Columbia Icefield Parkway to Athabasca Falls, incurring a minor problem at the National Park Entrance because we had two vehicles and only one Park permit, but got through OK. No animals today except for one lone elk across from the campground entrance. It might have been a caribou, but I didn’t see it that clearly, so I’m calling it an elk. Lots of warnings about caribou on signs all down the road, but no actual caribou. Still overcast and intermittent light rain.
Athabasca Falls was pretty much as we left it six years ago—beautiful. We connected the car and drove on to Columbia Icefield Center 65 miles south. It was a complete zoo. People were pushing and shoving to get to the ticket windows for the silly busses out to the glacier. People on the other side of the highway looked like ants crawling up the trail to walk on the glacier. You couldn’t move inside the lodge. The parking lots were nearly full. They will allow you to park overnight in the lot, but no thanks! We elected to take our chances and go on to one of several campgrounds between there and Lake Louise.
We made one false start, going into a tent campground that was pretty small to get through, but we made it and went on to Rampart Creek. Although the indications in the literature are that it will only take 25 foot campers, in reality you could get large rigs in here just fine. Very primitive and not very level, but quite adequate for us, and as with so many campgrounds so far, THERE’S NOBODY ELSE HERE! $17, no hookups. |
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7/20/2014 Day 74 Rampart Creek Campground on the Columbia Icefield Parkway to Lake Louise Campground; about 65 miles It rained most of last night, sometimes pretty hard, but it was mostly clear with fog on the mountain tops this morning. There are many glaciers and tall spiky mountains on this road, all breathtakingly beautiful. You do not need to hike anywhere to enjoy them; just use the frequent pulloffs to stop and take it all in. Basically you are driving down the middle of the Canadian Rockies. They loom on both sides in equal magnificence. No animals today, but fairly heavy traffic. The Columbia Icefield Parkway is generally good, though fairly rough, wide with ample turnouts, wide shoulders and passing lanes.
It was a very short day and we got into the campground just before 11 AM. Our site #36, electric only, two nights at $32.30 CDN per night plus a $13.50 reservation fee, had been vacated, so we got right in. This is one of only four campgrounds in which we have made reservations this entire trip.
It’s a configuration we’ve not seen before; a wide pull-through space with an electric box on either side and room for two RVs side by side. The RVs have room to stagger front to back so you are not necessarily looking into each others’ windows. The campground is huge; 189 RV spaces plus 206 tent sites. It’s also very popular, hence the need for reservations.
It’s also unique in that it has a 7-strand, 4-foot high electric fence completely around the tent area to keep grizzly bears from snacking on the paying customers. An electrified cattle guard provides a way to drive in, and electrified pedestrian gates with insulated handles are provided for access around the cattle guard, to trails and the “outside.” We heard from one camper that they saw a grizzly yesterday outside the fence just across from the restrooms. And we were informed by the campground staff that two grizzlies had been seen in the RV part of the campground yesterday. No tents or soft-sided campers are allowed in this un-electrified part.
Since this is Sunday, we elected not to take any of the drives up to the various lakes because of heavy traffic. The Visitors’ Center movie about the Park showed miles long traffic backed up along the roads to these attractions which make them unattractive to us. Later, as we sat outside to eat our cake, a gray jay came and sat on the picnic table hoping for a handout. No luck. We tried to attend the evening program in the tent campground, but it was too lame and too kid oriented for us. |
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7/21/2014 Day 75 Layover day at Lake Louise Campground It was raining from early this morning, hard at times, thunder and lightning, very dark. We have frequent trains going by on the tracks about 200 yards behind us, taking great delight in loud horn blasts as they go past the campground. Particularly at 2 in the morning.
By 10 the rain stopped, the sun appeared and we took the drive up to Lake Louise. After that, we got out on the Bow Valley Parkway toward Banff. Right away we saw a fairly young grizzly cross the road in front of us. Then there were no more animals all the way to Banff. Returning the same way also yielded no more animals.
We stopped at Johnston Canyon and took the 1.1Km hike up to the lower falls, the one in which you cross a bridge and crawl into a cave to view the falls from a window at the far end. This is a precarious walkway, cantilevered high over the raging river along the cliff side by steel supports driven into the cliff walls. Both parking lots and all along the highway for half mile in either direction was full of cars, and one bus pulled in as well. Far too many tourists. Donna spotted a Moss Wren, identified by sight as well as sound using iBird.
Banff is a very pretty town full of restaurants and shops and teeming with people. We parked on Elk Street and made a beeline for the Spaghetti Factory on Wolf Street where we had a fine meal for $32 as well as free Wi-Fi internet. Then we drove up to the Mount Norquay Ski Area and lookout where we took pictures of Tunnel Mountain and the city of Banff. Returned to the Lake Louise campground around 5. |
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Maligne Canyon out of Jasper, AB |
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7/22/2014 Day 76 Lake Louise, AB to Lundbreck Falls Recreation Area, AB; 230 miles We got away early this morning, dumped the tanks, filled with water, went around the corner and filled with gas ($1.24/ltr) and propane ($4/gallon) --hopefully for the last time in Canada--and headed down Canada #1 to Canmore. There was truck parking along the street in front of the Tim Horton’s, and a breakfast restaurant next door. There are Tim Hortons everywhere in Canada and they have Wi-fi as well as donuts.
Exit 118 just down the road leads to AB 40 south and east, joining with AB 22, “Cowboy Trail” south to the Pincher Creek area. Both 40 and 22 are really good roads, smooth, wide, lots of turnouts and passing opportunities, even though some maps show 40 as a blue line rather than the red for major highways. The entire route is lightly traveled and beautiful, transitioning from knife-edge peaks to rolling farmland. I don’t know why Milepost wouldn’t offer this as an alternate route up to Banff instead of going through Calgary.
Several camping opportunities exist along 22. The first was Chain Lakes Provincial Park just south of Longview. Next was Maycroft Rec Area. We decided to go on down to Lundbreck Falls and found a delightful campground, nearly full, but with an available pull-through with electric for $25. Now we’re about 60 miles from the border crossing at Chief Mountain.
On AB 40, between the Kananaskis Village turnoff and Highwood Pass, we saw two Rocky Mountain Sheep rams grazing beside the road, one young one, one middle aged, judging by his horns. I got good pictures of them. No other animals today.
In the late afternoon, a series of trucks and dozers descended upon the campground and the result was a thick layer of smelly tar-like dust inhibitor spread on all the roads. The host assured us that it was “environmentally friendly” and was not tar. Nevertheless, we didn’t want it on our vehicles, so I spent an hour taping the fender wells and all the places where it could accumulate. Donna performed an experiment by dipping a rock into it, letting it dry, then attempting to remove it with soap and water. It does seem to come off. The next morning it was mostly dry and proved to be no problem. |
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Mountain sheep alongside AB 40 just north of Montana border |
