Jasper National Park........Canadian Rockie Mountains

Monday 11^th August 2008

I get repaired in the morning and head out for Jasper Park, fingers crossed nothing else goes wrong!!

The weather could be better, the cloud is very low spoiling the views of the mountains, I cannot see the top of McBride mountain which is a shame the pictures look amazing. The scenery below the cloud is stunning. My first day in Jasper is lovely the weather has improved; I have sunshine with clear blue skies - great!

I pay my entrance fee but do not understand the system, the lady is not very helpful, I keep smiling, but I think she is having a bad day, so I only pay for 1 day and head for Jasper Town. I did not like it at all far too commercialized for me. I just had a walk to the visitors centre, got all the information I needed along with an understanding of the entrance fees, I am ok in Jasper Park until 4pm tomorrow.

Jasper is lovely, mountains and lakes with lots of wild life, one of the lakes even had a beach complete with deckchairs - I thought I was in Scarborough for a minute! One lake, that the Indians named Medicine Lake, has no outlet, it empties every autumn/fall, there are, apparently, 3 bore holes in the bottom. Once the weather in the mountains turns cold the glacier melt stops; the flow out from the lake is greater than the flow in so by the end of autumn/fall there is just a very small stream down the middle of the lake bed, then once the melt starts in the spring the lake fills up again!

The Ice field Highway, which runs through Jasper and Banff National Park, takes you past amazing waterfalls, the Columbia Ice field with many glaciers and wonderful snowy peaks. I spent one night in the park at great expense, it was worth it, this park is truly beautiful.

I have decided to do a detour to Vancouver to see Mary and Carl to do that I have picked a very nice looking round trip starting with Kootenay National Park, the weather is also picking up and getting warmer, Kooteneay is a lovely small park with some very pretty and interesting walks/hikes. One I took was to “Paint Pots” both Indian and European Settlers came to collect the red earth to make paint. The Indian people came to collect the clay which they made into balls, then dried in the sun, ground them up and mixed with fish or animal oil to make paint. In the early 1900; s settlers did the same thing when the big paint company’s also used this mud. Mud mining in a big way was started with the mud being sent to the large towns of Canada. Mining was stopped in the 1920’s when Kootenay became a national park.

I had another expensive nights sleep!

The weather is now very hot! A visit to Fort Steele had me hurrying from shade to shade. This is an early fort in what is now a heritage town. The fort was built to house the North West Mounted Police. Superintendent Steele, with 75 troopers, was sent to resolve the problems between settlers/miners and Indians. Steele developed a very good relationship with the Chief Isadore and the settlers making things very peaceful.

The origin of the fort is linked with the 1860’s discovery of gold on nearby Wild Horse Creek and continued until 1904 by 1910 it was in a state of decay. Local residents started, in the late 1950's, petitioning the government to declare Fort Steele an Historic Park, that came in 1961. Now it is a living museum with folk in costumes of the 1880’s and carrying out activities of the day, making fresh bread. Good visit, I enjoyed myself.

AUGUST 15^TH 2008

I had picked myself out a scenic route taking me to Vancouver (Mary ‘n Carl’s) Mary had told me that the town of Nelson was one of lovely old buildings and very pretty, also her mum had grown up there. Checking out the map I could drive along the side of a lake, cross over by ferry, then come down the other side passing through Nelson, this I decided to do. The drive was amazing. Snowy mountains, beautiful trees, some very interesting little village/holiday areas with a most beautiful lake and some lovely houses. The Ferry was very busy and very well organized. When I arrived I thought I would be ages, but no, everything went like clock work. I guess when you have as many lakes and sea areas as they have in Canada you get jolly good at running ferries! Anyway, my ride to Nelson was very enjoyable, however the temperature had been rising all day, by the time I got to Nelson it was 38.5c or 101.3f - much too hot to leave my air conditioned cab! So I drove around the town as much as I could, some of the buildings are lovely. I leave after a ride around the town heading onto Vancouver and look for a shady spot to sleep, which I did manage to find, the night was quite cool I am pleased to say.

AUGUST 16^TH 2008

I had found a bit of a forest to park in last night, after I had been there around an hour another truck came along and went a little further into the forest than I had. I have also come from mountain time to pacific time, which is back an hour. I had changed my clocks hoping I had gone the right way, but really, when travelling like I am, it doesn’t really matter an hour here or there!

This morning at 5.45am there is a knocking on the door. I was asleep and because it had been so hot yesterday I was also naked! So I ignored the first knock, started to get up at the second, then the banging started on every part of the truck going round. Well you know it takes a girl a while to wake up, get up, get some clothes on, find the glasses and have a quick drink of water by this time the banging is very loud, “I’m coming” I shout. I go to the drivers' seat, (door is double locked and I only need open the window a little). It’s the guy from the other truck; he has come to invite me to breakfast!!! Do I kill him now or later???? I open the window half way telling him I was asleep, he is obsessed with going for breakfast and keeps talking, driving me nuts at that time of the morning, but then I do find out it is in fact 7.45am I had already been in Pacific Time - changing my clock had in fact put me in 'no-time' - i was already in Pacific Time when I changed the clocks, I think I was 2 hours out!! Told you the time is matterless!! I told him I had to get showered and dressed and also my breakfast was ready. He said he would go have his breakfast and return!!! I got dressed P.D.Q and left, I had my breakfast at the next rest stop alone!

This day continued to get very hot with a high of 38c, but also very beautiful - mountains with snowy peaks, so many lakes and trees, stopping at the most awesome overlooks for tea breaks and lunch. This area is the fruit basket of Canada with fruit shops every few miles, I got a box of peaches for Mary and some cherries to nibble on. Gorgeous. By the way, my fridge is now broken, I can manage to keep stuff cool but have to turn it off at night and there is no ice on the freezer. There are also a lot of wineries along the road, I do not visit any of them I think you need a mate for wine tasting.

Sunday 17^th August.

I arrive at Carl and Mary’s in the afternoon after a very pleasant ride through Vancouver on the main highway.

It great to see them both again Carl is leaving early tomorrow on a business trip. I plan to spend a couple of days with Mary……ha! ha!

My fridge does not work at all; I ring around on Monday and to try and find a Waeco 24 volt fridge in Vancouver. The shop that eventually decides it does have a 24volt in the correct size and in stock gives me the name of a guy who may fit the fridge. So far so good. I make arrangements to take my truck for him to see at his place of work on Wednesday morning BUT on Wednesday the truck will not start!!! Mary lives on a hill so I am able to roll backwards and get a jump start………….been here before. In Vancouver there is a Mercedes garage, so I give Hans a ring and arrange to take the truck to him Thursday.

My couple of days does become a week! I have a lovely time with Mary, beautiful walks with Riley the family dog. West Vancouver where Mary lives is very beautiful with forest walks and coastal walks it great. A wonderful evening spent with a friend of Mary’s who made us a gorgeous meal with very nice wine; I think I was a little tipsy!! We also had a great girlie day with another friend shopping and lunch.

The morning trying to find the fitter for the fridge was hilarious, he was working at the side of a dog kennel on a boat in a car park when we stopped (I dared not turn the engine off) the dog went crazy there were loads of them, what a din, well we walked around, went into the kennels which drove the dogs even crazier, a lady, who I guess was the owner, was not impressed until Mary told her how much she liked dogs…….. We had also got the guy a large coffee and a bun, the coffee I keep spilling. We decide he is not there and will leave if only to shut the dogs up. Back in the car park the guy’s phone rang and he popped out of a boat to answer it! After all that he couldn’t do the job until, oh, I can’t remember, I think it was 6 weeks from next Tuesday or some such.

Back at Mary’s house Mary calls a friend of theirs who will do it on Friday!! double smiles. Then the shop say they have only got 12volt - I tell him we were assured it was 24v, after hanging on and fiddling around he came back to say yes it is 24v, the confusion arose because the fridge is either or. So I am happy again.

Thursday I take the truck to Hans, who also fiddles around checking, I don’t know everything he needs to check, in doing this he knocks the wiring from the isolation switch for the batteries and every thing goes crazy. This switch is really malfunctioning, he believes this may have been the problem all the time, but we will not go there! He has not got a new switch but is able to join all the wires and bypass the switch making everything safe. Phew! I’m back on the road again.

Friday Carl is home. We go to pick the fridge up in the morning, it is larger than the one I already have in, which has a draw underneath, Carl takes this out for me and puts in a new shelf for the fridge to sit on. I am so lucky to have such good friends. I have put the draw in the “shed “ to have it resized at a later date. Their friend came late afternoon and I now have a lovely new fridge, black in colour, with a much larger freezer section I am a very happy bunny!!

Saturday I would like to take Carl and Mary for a meal, instead we go to the pictures/movies, a Canadian film made in India; it was very good we then went to a drive in. Which I thought would just be a take away that you eat in the car from the boxes. Wrong! The menu is written on the wall a waitress comes out and tells Carl to put his head lights on when we are ready to order, she then comes back to take our order. I have a British Columbia Burger with a Caesar Salad, I still believe it will come out in polystyrene boxes. She then comes out with a very long tray and asks Mary to lower both windows, the tray fits across the back of the car from window to window, the food is on plates and dishes (paper but what the heck). She then brings another tray to fit across the front from window to window with Carl and my food on!!! Well it was lovely; I guess this is a real Canadian/American thing. Carl put the headlights on when we had finished and all was cleared away. What fun, a Canadian night out, movies and a drive in, apparently these places were a hang out for the guys and dolls!!

What a lovely week I had with 2 very special people.

SUNDAY AUGUST 24^th 2008

I leave Carl and Mary’s after breakfast which followed the Canadian flavour of last night with home made waffles, lovely, with of course Early Grey tea!

It is raining very hard, but my engine starts!

I am heading now for Banff, Glacier National Park and Yellow Stone National Park in America, but I am going to take a few detours on route! ha! ha!

I have picked a scenic route from my map and head up the Frazer Highway which even in the rain is stunning. I park up very early because it really is raining very hard.

Monday August 25^th 2008

The rain has stopped, I had a very peaceful night then an early start driving along the Fraser Highway at the side of the Fraser River. The drive is amazing, beautiful snow capped mountain, trees and the awesome fast flowing river, it was a beautiful day I never get tired of this beautiful country. I parked for the night in a rest area at Craigellachie which is where the last spike was driven into the railway lines which joined both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts also joining British Columbia to the rest of Canada…………

Tuesday 25^th August and 26th August.

I spend the next couple of days driving 4 National Parks of Canada. Mount Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho and Banff.

In Mount Revelstoke I took the high road to the Meadow in the Sky, this amazing road twists and turns to the very top of the mountain, which is covered with flowers. I guess there is also an amazing view but the cloud is very low spoiling it. However the drive and the flowers made the side trip worth while, it is also of course very high, I had no breath so did not take a walk.

There is also quite a lot of rain through out the 2 days. But once back on the main road and a little lower the views are stunning. I stop a couple of times to take a walk but there are large red notices stating there are bears in the area. I get quite scared and do not walk.

At Takakkaw Falls in Yoho N.P. I ask some people if I may walk near them because of the bears, they, of course, said yes! The falls were beautiful especially with so much rain.

The railways goes through these mountains, the gradient was so steep in one spot that when the line was first built there were a lot of accidents; so now the line twists like a cork screw inside the mountain, the trains are so long that the front of the train comes out of the tunnel and over the top of the back of the same train going in the tunnel! This has reduced the gradient from 4.5% to 2.2% and stopped accidents. Amazing. I was lucky enough to be there when a train was going in and out of the tunnel!

This drive has taken me through some awesome country, there is fresh snow on the mountain tops, I am surrounded by rugged mountains, tall trees, raging rivers and some of the most spectacular lakes I have ever seen.

From Banff Nation Park I go into Kananaskis Country Valley and the beauty continues with the addition of meadows! Kananaskis Village is from the 1988 Olympics.

This has been an amazing drive one of the very best I think, Just wonderful.

Tomorrow I head for “Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump”…………………………………