Day 6 - Banff to Jasper

Another fun - filled day of travel from Banff to Jasper with picturesque mountains, lakes and even a canoe trip through glacier waters.

We started our morning with our usual breakfast at 7am for an 8am departure from Banff to Jasper. We loaded the coach and started out of town and got a great treat early in the morning - a grizzly bear munching on some dandelions on the side of the road. Our first stops were at Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Both amazing lakes with pure water as crystal as ice and rich jewel-tone colors. We stopped for a short photo and washroom visit at Moraine Lake. We had great light and the photos turned out great.

We had a bit more time at Lake Louise - enough to take out a canoe and travel the length of the lake circle back and head back to the dock. This was by far the best way to view this lake. Once you got about 40 yards off of the waters' edge, the water was the most amazing and unrealistic color of blue - just like a swimming pool. Uncle Lenox, Aunt Dottie and I were in one canoe and Zeke, Cailyn and Jeremy were in the other. We completely smoked them to the other end of the lake and then again going back. They even admitted that they couldn't quite figure out how to catch us. We managed to have better paddling skills which gave us the edge of their strength advantage. If they could figure out how to not be zig zagging all over the lake they might have had a shot. I sat in the middle of the canoe and got splashed from either side so that when I got out of the canoe I was sitting in a puddle of glacier water. I can fully attest to how cold the water is coming off the glaciers! We had the best views and took in the unique experience of floating out in the glass waters surrounded by mountains, tall pines and glaciers.

After canoeing, we stopped for lunch at the Chateau of Lake Louise and I had a nice meat lasagna and delicious sweet pepper and sour cream chips. Delicious.

We boarded the coach and headed up the Icefields Parkway that connects Lake Louise and Jasper. This stretch of road is known for wildlife and amazing sites along the way and we took in both. Our first stop was at Crowfoot Mountain and Crowfoot Glacier and then over to the Bow Lake and Bow River. Just stopped for some photos, but again, great scenery. We continued north on the Icefields Parkway and took in the Weeping Wall, Big Hill, Bridal Falls and even some Rocky Mountain Goats.

After making a few quick photo stops, we make a long stop with the Athabasca Falls that tumble down the Athabasca River from the Athabasca Glacier. The most amazing mist blows off of the Falls and a bridge stands right over the falls so I could stand right in front of the falls and feel the power and wind off the glacier water. We took a few trails around the area and enjoyed the trails and rocks cut into the land.

We rolled into Jasper after the falls and checked into our hotel - the Jasper Springs Bungalows, which are adorable wood cabins with a fantastic view of the river. The area is tremendous and the wood cabins fit perfectly in the pines. I must admit though, the bathroom doors are tricky and I managed to lock myself in and thought for a while I was going to be in there through dinner. Luckily my aunts managed to free me, but it was still amusing.

We had dinner as a group at the hotel restaurant, where we learned all sorts of fun family stories. Dana told the story of Zeke, Christopher, Jeremy and Joe's firework battle, where as you image, the teamed up and shot fireworks at each other. Zeke and Jeremy were putting bottle rockets in pipes and shooting them at Christopher and Joe from a tree house, so they retaliated by lighting the trees under the tree house on fire to smoke them out. They attempted to put the fire out by peeing on the fire, but they just made it bigger, so they had to leap out of the treehouse and tuck and roll. Zeke says this was the best time they'd ever had. This story triggered Uncle Lenox's memory when he and some of my other uncles held a bee-bee gun fight where they had a similar battle, but with bee-bee guns. He also reminisced about how they used to put cherry bombs down in the pipes and put C-batteries in and shoot them off like canons. I'm glad I'm not a boy.

After dinner we played a few rounds of Scrabble from the hotel and I caught the end of the Stanley Cup Finals - yay Pens!