ROF= Ring of fire Odyssey MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
Tracks of the StoneBear BNF = Banff, BC/ Alberta journey
ROF = Ring of Fire journey
British Columbia/ Alberta, Canada
Monday August 25, 2014 BNF 10
Jasper, AL 2
... that's Jasper, ALBERTA... NOT Jasper, Alabama; Big difference.
Driving the Icefields Parkway the 1st time.... can't take pix fast enough... the Canadian Rockies... beyond description.
Jasper is really a neat place. Surrounded by the Canadian Rockies... snow pack on some of the mountains... and it's late August.
The Athabasca River runs through town.. the same river that runs down the Valley of the Icefileds Parkway. Yeah,... that beautiful drive with this river feeding the glacial lakes along the Parkway.
A good train station that is the northern end of the Banff National Park. This is the main "Via Rail" rail stop for JAsper/ Lake Louise/ Banff. The Via rail -- Canada's Amtrak passenger rail service-- route is from Toronto/ East, to Vancouver/ west origins.
There is a private excursion train that goes down the Athabasca River Valley/ Icefields parkway route to Lake Louise and Banff; It's the Rocky Mountaineer.
The Rocky Mountaineer was in stations late afternoon. It's a private tour rail passenger train that does NOT travel at night. ALL rail transit is in the daylight for best viewing... that's great. You don't miss any of the spectacular scenery.
Did I mention Jasper is a pretty neat place?
A lot of small businesses... good food, outfitters, local grocery store - adequate but not a big safeway supermarket- but ok. The price of food is high in Canada; about 15%+ higher than the states. sometimes a little more.
... a laundromat that had showers for patrons- tokens if you washed clothes, or I think you could buy a token for a couple $ & looked in one... they were private, doors locked, sink & mirror & adjacent shower stall. I thought this was pretty good to cater to the young kids backpacking & traveling, or ski bums... and I mean that affectionately for the young skiers.
A lot of B&Bs for overflow when the motel lodging is booked. Also see the Jasper post on B&B lodging... it's about 1/2 price of the motels and good on your budget and it's not a youth hostel; it's private homes extra room or basement.
It's not unusual to see an elk wandering through town.
Went to the city library and checked email. It was in the temporary space in the city auditorium. I walked back into the hockey arena & took pix... also see that post.
Drove up past the library,... up into the lakes above Jasper... to Patricia Lake... which was used as an experimental lake for boat research in the frigid arctic conditions.
from wikipedia:
Patricia Lake is notable for its involvement during World War II with Project Habbakuk, a plan to build an unsinkableaircraft carrier from an ice-based composite material termed "Pykrete".[3]
Initial studies of natural lake ice had been carried out at Lake Louise. In January 1943, Patricia Lake was chosen as the test site for building a prototype vessel.[1] The planned vessel was to be 2,000 feet (600 m) long and the prototype was to be a 1:10 scale model of this. In fact, the beam was to approximately this scale, but the length was only 60 feet, about a third of scale.[1]
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Then up to Pyramid lake. beautiful with a motel lodge for tourists.
... and a really great Bear carving.
Went Hwy 16 north of town a couple miles and drove out to Medicine Lake. Really beautiful and pristine.
A magnificent mountain range down the left/ north side of the road... lake, river valley on the right.
Drove on down the valley to Maligne Lake ... surrounded by Canadian Rockies snow cap peaks. My god it is so beautiful here. There's not a dozen cars on the road there and back. We've got Canadian Rockies without the tourists!
Fished the lakes some; no luck today. T-bird usually can catch a couple trout in these lakes.
Back up to Jasper mid afternoon. Sunset pix are somewhat overcast sky.
You never drink twice from the same stream.
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ALL Blog posts/photographs/video Copyright MCMLXIII ALL Rights Reserved
Late in the day out to Old Fort Point... that will require another post it's too much more to put here.
