Maligne Canyon Road

                                         Maligne Canyon, Jasper National Park, Alberta, CA

On our first morning in Jasper, while we were waiting for the temperature to warm up and the clouds to clear, we went into town in search of WiFi and some information from the visitor center. Thanks to Tim Horton’s and the public library for having a speedy connection so I can publish these posts. The visitor center also has free WiFi but for some reason I was unable to connect to it.

After lunch we picked up Chuck and Carla, whose site is over a mile from ours even though we’re both in Whistler’s Campground. We decided to take a drive along Maligne Lake Rd since there were several places we wanted to see.

We planned to hike in Maligne Canyon but missed the turn-off to bridge #6, where we were going to start, so we ended up starting at #5. The canyon has a series of six pedestrian bridges with scenic views of the river. Most people drive to bridge #1 and walk down the canyon from there, since the first few bridges are close together. Starting at 5 or 6 gives you a nicer hike without the crowds that are along the first few bridges. Plus it was all downhill on the way back for us.

Happy hikers Jim, Carla and Chuck on bridge #5.

There are a couple different trails so we chose the closest to the river.

It was a beautiful hike.

Water is everywhere, not only from the rushing river, but it also comes out of the rock in many places, drainage from Medicine Lake, which we would see later.

We started seeing a lot of people around bridge #3 but it got worse at 2.  I think a tour bus must have arrived at the parking area. We decided at this point to forego bridge #1, where there is also a teahouse. This is not our cup of tea!

We took the high trail back, which gave us fewer people and different views from above.

Driving about 10 miles farther south on Maligne Lake Rd brought us to the interesting and scenic Medicine Lake. This lake fills with glacier snow melt in the spring and summer, then dries up in the fall and winter. Its water doesn’t drain through a stream, but filters out of sinkholes in the lake bottom, which then follows a cave system through the rock. It finally resurfaces along the walls of Maligne Canyon about 10 miles downstream, as shown in some of the photos above.

Not sure what it was used for but apparently there was ferry service across the lake in the 50s. This sign was interesting about how they tried to unsuccessfully block the sinkholes to keep the water level from fluctuating.

 

We then continued another 10 miles or so to the prize scenery for the day, Maligne Lake. The most popular activity here is a boat cruise, and we soon realized why. This is one of the most beautiful lakes we’ve ever seen.

Of course it didn’t hurt that we had blue sky and good lighting in the late afternoon. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were coming out so we just took a short walk, but there are numerous trails in this area.

On the way home we stopped at Jasper Brewery for dinner. They had a problem with their last batch of beer so there were only a few choices, none of which were all that good, but we managed to drink an okay ale and eat a decent veggie burger. They have free WiFi but it was so slow we could barely check email and weather. They won’t be getting our business again. Other than that, our first day in Jasper National Park did not disappoint.

Jasper National Park, Whistlers Campground

Yesterday we had another lovely drive of 75 miles from Valemount to Whistlers Campground in Jasper National Park east along Highway 16, also known as Yellowhead Highway. The drive passes through Mount Robson Provincial Park, so we stopped at the visitor center to get some information. If you Google images of Mount Robson you will see a spectacular peak,  but it was very overcast so this is what we saw.

Continuing on we could tell this would be a spectacular drive on a clear day. We crossed the Continental Divide into Alberta and Mountain Time.

There was very little traffic given it was Labor Day, which is also a holiday in Canada.

It began to clear up as we neared the park. We had to stop at the entrance gate and buy our Parks Canada Passes, which cost us close to $100 USD.

As we pulled into the campground check-in station we were surprised to see a gray Lazy Daze pulling a red Jeep with Iowa tags, our friends Chuck and Carla. Since we both entered Canada we have had no way to contact each other, so we were hoping they made it.

Our site in Whistlers Campground. We have electric only and had to stop at the water fill station on the way in. The campground is better than we expected for a national park.

We spent the rest of the day catching up with Chuck and Carla, and watching and listening to the elk show.

It’s cold and cloudy but we’re heading out for some hiking and sightseeing today. Hope we can find internet to publish these posts.

First Few Days in Canada

                                                            Mush Bowl, Wells Gray Park, BC

We crossed into Canada at Sumas, WA on Thursday, both feeling a bit apprehensive after reading about border crossing experiences of other RVers. It turned out to be a non-event. There were only a couple cars in front of us that passed through quickly, then we pulled up and were asked for our passports and RV registration. The agent asked where we were going in Canada, had we been before, if we had any other people or pets with us, and did we have any liquor, guns or ammunition. His last question was “are you 100% sure you are not carrying any guns with you?”. I guess we answered everything correctly since he then told us to have a nice trip, and that was it. I read that no produce was allowed into Canada and I was ready to give up the little we had left, but the question didn’t even come up, unlike our friends who had some green peppers confiscated earlier this summer. Hope it’s as quick and easy when we return.

Traffic was very heavy on 1 east for many miles but thinned out as we got closer to our destination for the day, Hope, British Columbia. It’s a pretty location on the Fraser River, and we were ready to stop after 125 miles. We had some trouble getting our lights to work on the car after we hooked it up in Anacortes, so we were delayed trying to get that fixed. I had picked out Telte-Yet campground since it was within walking distance of town and claimed to have free WiFi.

We initially picked a site on the river but when we plugged in the power our EMS showed a ground fault. Of course the office manager had no idea that anything was wrong with the power at that site, so we moved across the road to a pull-through where it worked fine. We then discovered that the WiFi only works near the office, where we were not. It’s going to be a long few weeks having to rely on public WiFi instead of our own internet.

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It’s pretty basic, rustic, and overpriced, but it served our needs for a night. We paid the $35 CAD, which was only $27 USD. We are liking the current exchange rate which for us means a 23% lower price on everything we buy in Canada.

Some scenes from our walk around Hope.

The blue on the right is a fairly well hidden homeless camp we came across on a path along the river.

Hope has a large population of First Nations people and seemed rather depressed to us, despite its scenic location.

They seem to like silly wood carvings.

On Friday we drove 200 miles north on Highway 5 to Clearwater, the gateway to Wells Gray Provincial Park. We also stopped in Kamloops to pick up some things at Walmart, which was very similar to ours, although the layout was unlike any I’ve ever seen in a US Walmart. It was a pretty drive and there was not much traffic given it was the start of the Labor Day weekend. This is a scene from a pull off where we took a break.

We stayed at Lacaraya Golf and RV Park a few miles from Clearwater. It looks like a nice golf course but the RV park is another strange one, with water and electric sites scattered about in a treed area. This is another park that advertises free wifi but you can only get it at the clubhouse where it barely worked.

We stopped here to visit Wells Gray Provincial Park, 1.4 million acres of forests, mountains, lakes and rivers, and well known for its waterfalls. Spent all day yesterday driving the main park access road and hiking short trails to the falls after getting a map and some information at the visitor center. We thought it was kind of funny that they don’t tell you the distance of the trails, just how long it takes to walk them, as if everyone takes an hour to walk a mile and a half.

Sphats Falls, just inside the park boundary. We were not anticipating such a deep, dramatic canyon.

The water appeared to come out of a cave.

The one hour trail to Moul Falls. We clocked it as a 3.4 mile round trip hike.

Looking down over the top of Moul Falls. There is a trail somewhere that takes you to the base of the falls but we didn’t find it.

We were looking for a picnic table to stop at for lunch and saw a picture of one on the map. It turned out to be at the end of a 3.6 km steep, narrow dirt road that goes to a viewing tower that supposedly has a panoramic view of the park. Given that we woke up that morning to smoky haze, we knew there would be no views, but, it really wouldn’t have mattered as the trees have grown up so much they obstructed much of the view anyway.  I think the tower needs to be a bit higher..

These were taken at the top of the tower. I’m sure on a clear day it would be lovely.

The very impressive 300’ wide Moul Falls. The sound of the water was deafening.

From above.

Between the mist from the water and the haze in the air, we didn’t get good photos of Hemlcken Falls, said to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Canada.

Our final stop for the day was Bailey’s Chute, an extreme whitewater rapid caused by a lava flow narrowing the river bed. Poor Jim Bailey got this named after him following his drowning in 1952 after his canoe capsized in the Clearwater River just downstream of the falls.

We went there to see the salmon jumping.

Managed to capture a few images of them leaping up the chute, then watched them come crashing back down on the rocks. It’s rather sad to watch even though it’s part of the natural course of events of their lives.

There is a lot more to Wells Gray than what we saw but much of the park is only accessible by hiking or whitewater rafting. If we had stayed longer and the air had been clearer it would have been nice to go up to the higher altitude alpine meadows and lakes, although I’m not sure if there still would be wildflowers this late in the summer.

Today we drove another 125 miles north to Valemount, BC. It was a beautiful drive along the North Thompson River despite the mist and rain we had for most of the trip. We’re staying at iRVin’s RV Park, which actually has usable WiFi at our site, full hookups, heated showers and a laundry room, for $27 USD.

Tomorrow we move on another 75 miles to Jasper National Park in Alberta, where we plan to stay put for a week.