Day 28

 June 26, 2017

Housekeeping from yesterday - this may be a better photo of the grizzly and her two cubs:

Travel day today on what is supposed to the most scenic road in the world.  230 km through the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that winds through ancient glaciers, dramatic rock spires, emerald lakes and broad sweeping valleys.  Much of it was steep grades both up and down.  The Mercedes diesel took it in stride but it did require some down shifting.    Bow Summit is 6,800 feet, the highest point on the drive from Banff to Jasper and the highest elevation crossed by a public road in Canada.  Herbert Lake was the first point of interest, colors were amazing, brilliantly turquoise.   Crowfoot Glacier that no longer has the 3rd foot due to the glacier receding but still impressive, 

Athabasca Glacier where we opted not to do the bus trip onto the glacier due to the 2 hour wait.  The melt from this and the Columbia Icefield flows into the Atlantic, Pacific and the Arctic oceans.

 Athabasca Falls that were very impressive.

There were lots of places to park and hike that we did not take advantage of.  It was steep enough in the Unity much less on foot.

We stopped for lunch at a lovely spot with great views.

In spite of all the bear warnings we did not see any wildlife today if you don’t count all the Asian tourists parking cars in the RV spots.  Bob was about to go wild.  Here's one bear we saw today.

We arrived in the Jasper NP and found our way to Whistler’s campground tucked away in a forest (primitive) but with electric only.  No TV but did have cell coverage.  We researched the town of Jasper to find a laundry, grocery store, liquor store and restaurant.  Two of the four are in the same address while the other two are within 2 numbers away.  We are beginning to think Jasper is not very big.  We made an early evening of it.