Banff and Jasper Nat'l parks to Prince George, BC

On our way to the parks we stopped by a buffalo jump. It was very impressive and interesting. Smashed-In-Head Buffalo Jump. Run by the local native tribe you could see how proud they were of this site. It was very nicely done and a good stop. Pictured is a marmot we saw while viewing the jump. Then about another 200 miles to Banff Nat'l Park.

We must admit that we were not impressed with this area at first. We entered the park where you were asked to pay admittance. Of course we were ready for that, but here you are charged $9.80/person/day. We planned to stay 4 days so approximately $80 just for entrance. They give you a receipt to hang on your window and a magazine type publication on the areas of the parks (they run together), but nothing on hiking. OK, let's find a Visitors Center at the first stop: the town of Banff. I don't have any pictures because we were just trying to dodge people as we searched for the visitor center. That town is very built up and loaded with tourists/shoppers. People, vehicles, buses and campers everywhere on the narrow streets. When we finally identified the visitors center (on the third pass by) we realized that the limited parking they had for it was filled and nothing around on the streets. Let's get out of here and just find our first campground to figure things out.

A quick search of the info book lead us to a campground about 20 miles north of Banff, Johnston Canyon. It was after 4pm and they had a notice that the road the campground was on was closed from 6pm-7am. OK. We arrived there and a notice told us to find a vacant site and return the next day to pay. Oh, did I mention we arrived on Friday and lots of others thought it would be a good place to be on the weekend. There were a few open sites but they were spaced decently apart. Got out the grill and our chairs and thought, “OK, here we really begin our Canadian Rockies experience”; then the freight train came barreling by behind our camper, blowing it's whistle no less! We just had to laugh. But knew we couldn't stay there a second night. That campground did have a good hot shower, but no hookups and I will tell you about the dump later. The best thing was the wonderful smell of pine. Pictured below is our campsite there.

Seems the entrance fee was not the only surprise in fees. The camping for no hookups is anywhere from $17 - $27 for a site, $8.80/night if you want a campfire (with wood provided), and $8.80 if you want to dump your tanks. These add up to make camping very expensive. Johnston was $27.60 (because they had showers, flush toilets and running water spigots (not to fill RV tanks); so we paid $46.20 for our first night camping and did not dump or have a campfire, that would have made our total $63.80! Wow, our parks are a steal!

After listening to the freight trains our first night, we had to move on and we still did not have any idea of where we could get some good hiking. As we paid on our way out, I asked about hiking maps and yes, they did have them and but when we looked at them on the way out to the road, they were only for this area and we were almost out of it by now. ;-( So, let's drive another 40 miles to the next town and see if we can get some information. Oh my. Well, the drive there was very enjoyable. Beautiful scenery of 10,000+ ft snow capped peaks and glaciers, plus we saw 3 elk grazing by the road side.

We arrived at Lake Louise. It was smaller and less crowded. The visitors center actually had a large parking lot. When we spoke with an attendant she was wonderful and told us everything plus, that we needed to know to start enjoying this area. They had a nice hike right there outside town and we were so ready to get out and stretch our legs. We drove to the trail head, a large parking lot by a massive hotel on the lake. Put on our hiking boots and packs and were anxious to get on a trail. This one was a 6 ½ mile round trip with a elevation climb of around 1300 ft, there was still snow on much of the upper trail which made for some interesting experiences, but at the top was the promise of a Tea House.

On the way we saw a bear feeding across a narrow valley. Too far for pictures but we saw it just fine and that was exciting. There were many mountain goats grazing on the side of the cliffs. After 2 hours we arrived at the Tea House and enjoyed Vegetarian Soup, Apple Pie and of course, Tea. The hike back was a wet one. We had some slight, short showers up but back was fairly steady rain. Thankfully no downpours or gusty winds. Back to the camper and into dry clothes. Now this is what we were looking for!

We headed further north to our next campground, Rampart Creek. The sign was knocked down but we tried it anyway. The info said it had just opened 2 days prior. We found a campground of 50 sites and only about 6 campers. And no train tracks around!! We camped on a gorgeous river with mountains in the front and back of us. So nice that we decided to stay 2 nights. The second full day there was so peaceful and relaxing. Walking along the river, Les found many interesting and large tracks in the mud.

Monday, June 10^th Our 35^th Anniversary.

We left Rampart, continuing north to the Columbia Ice Fields. Beautiful drive. It had snowed last night in the high mountain passes. We stopped at Athabasca Glacier. Les hiked a bit and I took the Snocoach ride onto the glacier. It was over cast. Snowed before and at the end of our visit. This glacier grows 15m in the winter and melts 25m each summer. A net loss of 10 m per year. This glacier will be gone in 600 years.

One of the peaks is a Triple Continental Divide, Dome Mountain. The water to the north of the mountain travels to the Arctic Sea, to the west it goes to the Pacific Ocean, and the east goes to the Atlantic Ocean. The south is the Columbia Ice Fields. There is only one other Triple Continental Divide, and that is in Siberia.

We drove on to Jasper and our last stay in this area, Whisper Campground. We were treated to an amazing experience with the local elk. It is calving season and there are a number of elk who have decided that this campground is a good place to have their young. We saw elk as we drove in, had a group walk in front of our campsite, and saw some while taking a walk. They are very big and impressive.

We also saw squirrels and gofers. Tomorrow we will leave the Rockies and head west on Rt16 toward Prince Rupert, British Columbia. This day, Tuesday, our entire trip is through the Mt. Robson Valley, so pretty. On this trip we saw 3 black bear and 2 grizzly (a mother and cub). One on the road into our campsite and the others along the road during the day. We also saw 2 big bull elk and a mule deer. So cool! We stopped for a short hike through old growth red cedars and on the trail were huge prints of a moose, pretty fresh. Oh my, wonder if the bear spray we are carrying will do anything to turn a moose?

We board the ferry there for Alaska via the Inside Passage, June 18^th.  We are posting this in a visitors center at Prince George.