Good bye Heather, Hello Jasper

We got Heather back to Calgary for her flight home – and she made it, but arrived to 100 degree humid weather!  What a change!  It was great having her here to vacation with us.

Just a little more time in Lake Louise.  One thing I forgot to mention in the last post was the interesting overpasses we find here….animal overpasses!  The area of the park that fronts the highway is fenced to protect the animals.  To allow them to pass from one side to the other, special animal overpasses were designed.  We read that they work!

One more visit to Lake Louise, this time in the early evening.  It is a beautiful spot!  Full of tourists, of course, but still beautiful.

Heavy rain fell towards daybreak, along with hail.  The mountains are so high that they got new snow!  In July!

We left Lake Louise, heading northward to Jasper.  Lunch along Lake Herbert…can’t ask for a better lunch site.

Clouds were left from the night’s rain.  They seemed to just roll down the mountains in some places.

One magnificent vista after another along the road.

Bridal falls.

In Jasper, finally.  The campground that we chose, Whistler, has almost 600 sites.  But, they are spaced so well and in such a wooded area that you would never believe it.   There is a lot of privacy for each site. Smokey needs a return visit to a vet and I’ve been struggling with a cold, so we have opted to extend our stay here by an extra two days. Our “cottage” is set up and ready to live in again.

Jasper….WOW.  The mountains arent as high or filled with glaciers like Lake Louise, but I think it may be even more beautiful.  Other than Switzerland,  the Canadian Rockies are the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen.  That takes nothing away from our “hometown” Blue Ridge Mountains; just different.

A drive today took us to Medicine Lake.  In summer, Medicine Lake looks just like any other lake in Jasper.  But by October, the lake vanishes!  It’s replaced by a shallow stream that winds its way sluggishly across the mud flats to a few small pools.  In the spring, the lake refills, fed by melt water from snow and glaciers.  This water actually runs in an underground passage.  With the spring melt, the underground passage can’t handle all of the water so the basin floods.  Indians believed that the disappearance of the lake was by “big medicine” or magic, and they feared the lake.

The next lake is the Maligne.  Of course, it’s beautiful!

This doe was drinking at the lake.

Internet is spotty at these parks.  We thought we would be able to use Luke’s phone as a hot spot, but not here in Canada.   But I’m getting these blogs out as I can!