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Well this blog needs to start with a general apology. Trev and I have just come back from Jasper town after pizza and chicken wings and two jugs of beer and we know that we have drunk the beer believe me. The good news is that we have had an amazing day today and fallen in love with the mountains and pine forests all over again. We have also rung ahead to Banff(our destination for tomorrow) and the hotel have said that things should be making a big step back towards normality tomorrow so we are pressing ahead with our planned itinerary....all good news!

So back to today and what we have been up to. The day started with a trip up to the Marmot Basin, the ski area of Jasper. We were going here purely because Jonathan wanted to know what it was like and what kind of facilities they had in case he decided to come back here. In a way he

had already discounted it as a destination as it is about 17km from the main town so the thought of a bus every day really does not do it. So back to the ski resort, well after driving said 17km up a winding road we were met with barriers. The national park team had closed the road off from the general public and you could not even go and have a look at what might be there. Such a shame but it did have a silver lining coming up here.

The night before we had highlighted the things that we wanted to see whilst we were in Jasper and our next stop was not one of them. As we has started to climb the mountain to the ski area we had noticed a sign saying that the Edith Cavell mountain was only three km away so after getting down the road from the closed ski resort we took a chance and diverted to see what Edith was all about. Now we have learnt today that signs can also be misleading as the 3km was actually only referring to the distance to the junction to the Edith Cavill Mountain road, there was another 17km to drive. We were already in for a penny and up for a pound so we started the steep climb up the mountain to who knows what.

WOW !!!

The Edith Cavell Mountain is a glacier in the middle of the national park. How we did not know it was here is beyond us but we are so glad for that sign. To get to the glacier itself we had to walk up a very very steep narrow pathway that made our heart rates meet maximum levels. They should seriously put a health warning on that climb. To add to the climb you then had to climb down a rocky ravine where you you could not put a stable foot down on to the floor but by was it worth it. The glacier was made up of two parts.

One (the actual Edith Cavell Mountain) was just like what we had seen in Iceland and Alaska only this time we were right up close and personal with her. Its hard to describe a glacier but it's most striking unusual quality its is blueness. The colour of the ice is baby blue rather that white and the shapes that it makes are almost geometric in that they all seem to have right angles and sharp corners.

Edith Cavell herself had been a nurse who had been executed in the first world war. She had stayed behind when everyone else had left to look after the sick and injured so in her honour they had named a mountain after her. Glaciers are really interesting things and this one was extra special as you could actually see where the glacier had retracted and melted from the valley base. What it had left behind was barren and even now some two hundred years later from the ice melting were we only just able to see new seedlings busting through the rocky ground.

Again we have to encourage you to to look at the photographs as it is impossible to describe and we just dont have the vocabulary.

Next stop was a cable car (or tramway as it was called here) up to a peak that would give us views across the whole of the Jasper National Park. Now this thing was old, it creaked and groaned and I cant say that it felt 100% safe.

Built in 1964, the cable car that we were travelling in was exactly that age and as we were piled into the max, lets say that we were getting very friendly with all those around us. Now this cars ascent was also very steep indeed. Although it only climbed 1000km (the car in whistler had been much higher) it felt like we were making an almost vertical ascent of the mountain.

It was worth it though as the views from the top were beyond sensational. You could see all of the park, its cobalt blue lakes (again please look at the photographs to see these lakes as they really are COBALT blue).Its winding thrashing rivers and mountain top lakes that feed the white water waterfalls. This was the best place to understand what the Jasper National Park was about and what it had to offer and it truly was awe inspiring....like we said at the beginning of todays blog, we fell in love again with the mountains and the pine forests. We were also rewarded with our first sighting of wildlife, a marmot. Like a cross between a beaver and a squirrel, it sat on top of a rock formation looking at us looking at him before it scurried off between the crack and disappeared from view.

Feeling inspired form our trip to one of the peaks we headed off back into Jasper for lunch at a picnic table right beside the train tracks. Not the best of locations but it was near Subway and the sun was shining so we tried to make the most of it. It was certainly better than sitting inside even though the wind did blow everything away as soon as you lifted a hand.

Next stop were those striking blue cobalt lakes that we had seen for the top of the cable car. The lakes were called Lakes Edith and Annette. On the way there we were rewarded with our second wildlife spotting of the day, a small breakaway herd of elks (these were young elks as they did not have the antlers) grazing the fresh grasses at the side of the road.

Back at the Lakes, and we had arrived at the beginnings of a thunder and lighting storm, the skies had turned grey and lightning forks could be seen clearly in the sky. Now we have no idea what makes these particular lakes so blue but they are. Its almost like man has had something to do with it as they are so striking it almost looks synthetic. We have seen this before though so we know that it is not unique, the last time was in New Zealand and it was exactly the same thing.

Leaving the lakes and the thunder behind we headed out for the last stop of the day and something of a relax. Again we were rewarded with our third and fourth major wildlife spotting of the day. The first being the mountain horned sheep. Now to us brits we would swear that these were actually goats but apparently not. There wooly coats were all hanging off them and they did look well , a little unkempt shall we say but our fourth siting was something else. A fully mature Elk eating the shrub at the side of the road complete with antlers, this beast was impressive and it was amazing to see one on its raw environment which is more than we can say about our next stop.

We headed out of Jasper by about 60km to a hot spring baths called Miette Hot Springs. Now yes the water was a very very pleasant 30 degrees plus and the views around the pools were stunning but the complex itself was like a local council run pool that had seen better days. There was no room to swim at all and just standing in the hot water was nice and soothing but it was not exactly what we had in mind having experienced similar things in Iceland and New Zealand.

Still it was a nice enough way to spend an hour and it did feel relaxing so by the time we left he trip up had definitely been worth while.

Back to Jasper and we got caught up in terrible traffic on the way down as an accident had occurred on the single lane road back into the town. We made it eventually and that takes us back to where this blog began , ending with too much beer and pizza. Its been a fantastic day and I hope that in my slightly inebriated state I have been able to do justice to just how good it has been. Trevor is now in his sleeping position so theres no hope of this getting posted tonight.

Night all, tomorrow is Banff and closer to the devastating floods that Alberta has seen this week. Fingers crossed that it will all be OK..

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