trains, waterfalls, icefields and bears (oh my)

July 10. Right now, I’m sitting fireside with a cup of Shiraz (hey, no one said we were roughing it … although it is in my tin camping mug) and my laptop remembering everything we did today. It started out with a partly clear view of Mt. Robson – Dave was pumped that the clouds cleared enough to get a good view and a ton of pictures.

We then made our way south making a lot of stops along the way. First, we stopped in Jasper, checked out the cozy town and train station. Then we stopped at almost every roadside pull off to take pictures of the mountains. Today was the day that I got a true taste of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. What I’ve seen so far has been breathtaking, but wow, the drive today was magnificent. ok, I had a few emotional moments. Winding through the mountains around every turn was another jaw dropping view of snow topped mountains. We stopped at Sunwapta falls – a wicked and very angry waterfall. Who knew it was there? We were just driving along and saw a sign for a waterfall and said, hey, let’s go check this out. It was ‘namazing (to quote Sara’s daughter). We made a few stops like that – just pulled over to see turquoise lakes and ‘namazing mountain peaks. Then we hit the Columbia Icefields. Again, WOW. We bundled up in toques, boots and jackets and climbed up to where it has receded to since 1844. It was also cool to see where it was in 2001, the last time Dave was there.

And, today …. We saw a bear! It was a momma bear at the side of the road with two baby pubs (ya, cubs, but I tried to say pups and cubs at the same time).

We planned to camp at Lake Louise, but they were full by the time we got there – so we headed a bit further south to Johnston campground.

Today was a blast, I think my most favourite day so far – and we’ve done a ton of cool stuff.