Pictures - Jasper and Hinton AB

Highway 93 between Banff and Jasper

Still on the Road!

The Columbia Ice Fields - Athabasca Glacier

More of the Glacier

Still on the road - In Jasper NP

Beaver Boardwalk in Hinton AB

Jean on the Boardwalk

A beaver dam

Definitely a rough road -in search of Brule Sand dunes

Pictures - Hurricane Ridge and BanffO

Hurricane Ridge - Olympic National Park

Lupine

Breezy 45 degrees on Hurricane Ridge

Visitor's Center

Lake Louise - Banff National Park

At the Fairmont Hotel at Lake Louise

On the road to Jasper, Hinton AB

We left Canmore Thursday morning - definitely more smoke obscuring the mountains in the Banff area!   We took Hwy 1 and 93 through the parks to Jasper.   Ahead was a traffic slowdown, and we inched along for about 20 minutes ---had to have been an animal along the road that everyone was looking at.   A short distance later we saw a black bear climbing the ditch.   The scenery on our route was wonderful - mountains, lakes, and the Columbia Ice fields with the Athabaskan Glacier.  We pulled into the Hinton, AB KOA about 3:30  after passing a herd of mountain sheep just outside the boundary of the NP.

Friday morning we did chores around the campsite, and late in the afternoon drove to the town of Jasper (40 miles) and did some window shopping and did find a wallet and Jack got some moccasins for around the house.  

Saturday we explored the town of Hinton, found the church, and then explored the town's new museum.   The docent was very helpful and gave us ideas of other things to see...i.e. Brule sand dunes and the Beaver walk.   After supper Saturday we went to the Beaver Walk.  

Sunday we tried to find the dunes, but after driving 4 miles on the roughest road I've experienced, we decided to turn around and go back to camp.   The whole trip was 8 miles round trip, and took us 1.5 hours!   That's SLOW driving.

Monday morning after breakfast we started for Camrose and the Burkard relatives!   We arrived in Camrose at 3:30.   It was a cool and cloudy day.   Around Edmonton we hit a good rain shower.
We will be in Camrose until August 18 when we'll start back to the States.

Canmore and Banff National Park

We arrived in Canmore on Monday, July 31 after an uneventful trip through customs.   Canmore is a town about 15 miles from the gates to Banff Natinal Park and is a popular place to camp.   You are definitely unplugged - no wifi to speak of, no tv, and if you are American, likely no telephone or data without paying a good deal.

When we awoke on Tuesday morning, we found our truck and RV covered in ash from a forest fire in the Banff National Park.   The heavy night air likely dropped the particles so before we could drive, we had to clean the windows of the truck.   We had trouble exchanging our US currency for CDN, as banks are no longer interested in exchanging unless you are a member of the bank.   A banker advised using our charge cards to get cash from the ATM, so that is what we did.   After lunch we drove to the  town of Banff and did some shopping and stopped for a double dip of coffee ice cream.   It was cloudy, windy, and cold so we opted to eat our treat in the truck.  

Wednesday it was in the 40's when we got up and it was a beautiful day - the wind had driven the smoke in the other direction, so we had beautiful mountains to see.   WE drove to Lake Louise to revisit the lake.   This year they had added shuttle busses to ease the parking situation at the lake.   It was about a 15 minute ride to the lake, and this time there was still snow on the mountains.   Wow!   We took our turn taking our pictures, and Jack took pictures for several groups who asked.   WE ate lunch in the Fairmont Hotel Deli, perused the book store, and did some walking in the area before re boarding the shuttle bus for the parking lot and back to camp.   It was a wonderful day.

Great Falls, MT And Shelby MT

We drove from Helena to Great Falls and stayed at Dick's RV Park.   Enjoyed our neighbors on the left who were from CUTTS, AB and were down for a short vacation before the August rodeo season began.   The wife is an official timer for the rodeos, and she said she'll be busy all month.  

Our only sight-seeing was a revisit to the Lewis & Clark National Interpretive Center.   It's very well done, and includes a film and an extensive progressive display of their trip.   It was well worth a second visit!   I learned things I had missed on our first trip several years ago.   On Sunday we left and drove to Shelby MT where we camped overnight before heading into Canada.

The manager of the Lewis & Clark Campground in Shelby graciously agreed do take care of my little African Violet until our return on 8/19.   Otherwise, I could have lost it passing though customs either on the way into Canada or on the way out, crossing into the USA.

Will blog about Canmore and Banff in my next writing.