Jasper

A bit of a disaster today. Started okay as we drove the Trans-Canada highway to the edge of the park looking for wildlife. We got reasonable view of a Black Bear we found but the roads around Jasper resemble a safari when something is seen and someone soon parked by us, got out of the car, and it was scared off. We also got a good number of Big-horn Sheep. Birds were few and far between but we did see a Sharp-shinned Hawk and I got brief views of a Pileated Woodpecker. After walking a small trail (nothing of note, but very fresh Black Bear prints) and stopping for lunch at the end of the old Fire Road (apparently good for Grouse, but we saw none) we headed into town for our white water rafting trip.

It was here that we realised that we had forgotten to change our watches from Pacific time to Mountain time and we were an hour late, the trip having left. We re-booked for tomorrow and found Michelle in the town. The trip for the following day was not scheduled to finish until 3pm and we were due to take a slow drive along the Icefields Parkway that day. We decided that the best course of action was to take a slow drive along the top third of the Jasper-Banff road so that we could zoom through that section the following day. This we did, getting as far as Sunwapta Falls.

An evening BBQ again, but just as I put the burgers on, a clash of thunder and a huge downpour so we rescued the food as best as we could and ate in the RV.