Leg 15—Banff to Jasper: May 14, 2006

Before leaving for my vacation, I purchased tickets through Gray Line to take a Brewster tour from Banff to Jasper prior to my vacation. The tour costs $93.81 (CAD) but well worth the bucks. The nine-hour tour through the Canadian Rockies takes gorgeous scenery, to put it mildly. We see wildlife, evergreens, blooming deciduous trees, snow-capped mountains, and top it off by visiting a glacier. The bus passengers walk on a glacier. This tour has to be the highlight of my vacation. Although the tour is by bus, it is worthwhile because it travels where trains can’t go. This leg is my favorite of the whole trip.

We continue on the Trans-Canadian Highway (TCH), Icefields Parkway, and the Provincial Route 93 from Banff to Jasper through the Canadian Rockies. The Trans-Canadian Highway is the second longest in the world. The longest is in Australia.

One of our stops is Lake Louise. The lake is still frozen at this time of the year. Lake Louise is both an actual lake and a nearby small settlement located in Banff National Park. The unique emerald color of the lake comes from Rock Flour carried into the lake by melt-water from the glaciers that overlook the lake. Recreational activities in the area include hiking, scrambling, and down-hill skiing. On the eastern shore of the lake is Chateau Lake Louise, a five-star hotel. It was gradually built at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is thus a cousin to Château Frontenac in Quebec.

The background of Lake Louise is filled with views of several snow-capped mountains including Mount Temple (3543 m / 11,692 ft), Mount Whyte (9,844 ft) and Mount Niblock (9,820 ft).

The Canadian Rockies contain five national parks: Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, Kootenay National Park, Watertown Lakes National Park, and Yoyo National Park. The tour bus travels in Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. Banff National Park alone is 2,564 square miles, and Jasper National Park covers 4,199 square miles.

The bus driver makes many stops for photo shots, to eat and to use the wash room (a Canadian bathroom), thus making the trip a nine-hour ride vis-à-vis a four-hour trip by car.

The Brewster driver, Bill, says, “Bears are waking up now, so yell, if you see a one, and I will stop the bus for everyone to see.” He says that a bear attacked a bicyclist two days ago in Banff. He shows us fences constructed next to the highway to prevent animals from getting killed by cars. Animals have overpasses to cross the highway.

Someone says they see deer. The driver drives slowly by six deer alongside the road but not slow enough for me to get a picture.

The driver is humorous. He tells a joke, “What is the difference between a bison and buffalo? A buffalo is a four-legged animal and a bison is what British wash their hand in.”

Evergreen and deciduous trees cover the mountains up to 7,200 feet. The deciduous trees are beginning to turn green. In the fall, these trees produce many fall colors in a backdrop of evergreens. On several mountains, there are large areas where trees had been mowed down by avalanches.

The Rockies is home to a whole host of wildlife known to man: elk, deer, moose, caribou beaver, marmot, big horn sheep, mountain goat, snowshoe hare, lynx, cougar, wolf, and black and grizzly bears. But also claiming the Rockies as their home are two species of humming birds, a ground squirrel that sleeps for eight months of the year, and a frog that freezes solid in winter and yet thaws out in spring alive and well.

On our trip, we spot mountain goats at about 6500 feet on the mountainside. The goats live above the treeline in cliffs, rocks, scree, rockslides as well as grassy slopes and alpine meadows. Bald eagles and golden eagles try to knock the goats of to their death for their dinner.

Along the highway, we see several flocks of bighorn sheep, climbing on the rocks near the road and feasting on grass and plants. The sheep can easily climb and scale steep rocky faces that are extremely difficult for man. They live at lower elevations than the mountain goats, they travel in flocks, and they are shy and elusive.

The driver stops the bus to look at two Caribou. The Caribou of North America is now considered to be the same species as the Reindeer of Europe and Asia. The Caribou are mammals and live year-round north of the treeline in the rugged Canadian Rockies.

Banff National Park has in excess of 1,000 glaciers. Brewster offers rides onto the Columbia Icefield in custom built Snowcoaches for $33.95. The Snowcoaches are the monster-trucks of the bus world and the experience of walking on a living glacier together with riding in a Snowcoach is worth the cost. The Snowcoaches travel at 12 miles per hour.

The Columbia Icefield is astride the Continental Divide of North America. The icefield lies partly in the northwestern tip of Banff and the southern end of Jasper National Park. It is about 1066 feet in area, 328 feet' to 1,197 feet in depth and receives up to 23 feet of snowfall per year. The icefield feeds eight major glaciers, including: Athabasca Glacier, Castleguard Glacier, Columbia Glacier, Dome Glacier, Stutfield Glacier, and Saskatchewan Glacier.

Part of the icefield, the Athabasca Glacier, is visible from the Icefields Parkway. The Athabasca Glacier has receded significantly since its greatest modern-era extent in 1844. During the summer months visitors to the area can travel onto the glacier in the comfort of large "snowcoaches".

Some of the highest mountains in the Canadian Rockies are located around the edges: Mount Adored, Mount Athabasca, Mount Bryce, Castleguard Mountain, Mount Columbia, Mount King Edward, Mount Kitcheners, North Twin Peak, South Twin Peak, Snow Dome and Stutfield Peak. All are two miles are greater above sea level.

The Athabasca River and the North Saskatchewan River originate in the Columbia Icefield, as do tributary headwaters of the Columbia River. These waters flow ultimately north to the Arctic Ocean east to Hudson's Bay (and thence to the North Atlantic Ocean), and south and West to the Pacific Ocean respectively, making it a triple divide point.

When we leave the Icefields, we enter Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, spanning 4,200 miles. The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains. Wildlife in the park include: elk, moose, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, bears and caribou.

Some of the park's many photogenic vistas include Mount Edith Cavell, Pyramid Lake with Pyramid Mountain, Maligne Lake, Medicine Lake, and the Tonquin Valley all considered best photographed at sunrise except for Maligne Lake, which is best in the evening. Other attractions are numerous other outdoor related recreational activities (e.g. hiking, fishing, wildlife viewing, rafting, kayaking, camping, etc.).

Major river systems originating in the park include North Saskatchewan River, Athabasca River which flows north along the parkway then turns east at Jasper town site to continue out of the mountains and on into the Mackenzie River system.

On our tour, we stop at Athabasca Falls, just 23 meters high. It is not known for its height; Instead it is known for the force of the falling water due to the quantity of water flowing. We follow the Athabasca River to Jasper, the final destination of our tour.

Jasper, Alberta is a railway town built next to the Athabasca River. The town is the vacation center of Jasper National Park. There are several hotels and B&Bs in Jasper. I stay at the Evergreen Guest House.

A young couple hosts the B&B. The Evergreen Guest House bright guest rooms in a quiet neighborhood, just a short walk from downtown Jasper. Each room features a private bathroom and a queen-sized bed with pull-out futon couch or twin bed. Both rooms have cable TV and private entrances. The young lady offers me a discount on my room without the breakfast, which I accepted.

After checking-in I walk three blocks to have dinner at the Mount Robson Restaurant. There I eat their special, pork chops and salad.

The next morning, I window shop, have my digital pictures transferred to a C.D. and eat breakfast.