A day in Jasper and Banff National Parks

When we woke up yesterday in Hinton, the first thing I heard was thunder.  I knew that rain and thunderstorms were possible, but I was hoping that somehow it would miss us.  However, that wasn't going to be case and we haven't let the rain slow us down yet...and at least the weather forecast for Jasper and Banff gave me hope that it might clear up.

As we drove into Jasper, the clouds were low hanging, but the rain had stopped.  At least for the time being.  We continued on into the park, making some stops along the way to enjoy the scenery.

I think the clouds add some drama to the setting and give it a little extra character.  Although I do wonder what it would look like here if the sun were shining.

As we continued along, not far into the park, I spotted this female big horn sheep.  She was just grazing away along side of the road.  Lucky for me she was directly across from a pull-off, so I pulled over and parked to watch her graze a bit.

It wasn't long before she drew a bit of a crowd...and then the girls noticed her and that was the end of our peaceful wildlife viewing.  With three crazy barking GSPs, she became nervous and ran across the road right behind us, which led to a lot more crazy barking, and up the hill she went.  It was a good start to what I hoped would be a day full of wildlife.

Shortly, we reached the town of Jasper.  I had decided that one of the safest places to walk the girls would be on the trails through and close to town, although, we saw a coyote as we took the exit into town, so who knows if I was right.  Either way, the girls needed a good walk so that they would relax and enjoy the drive as we continued on through the parks.

The skies were threatening rain, but off we went to explore with Maddie in the lead.

While everyone was enjoying all of the new scents, Peaches was going crazy.  Lunging forward, weaving from side to side, pulling on the leash as hard as she could and she had forgotten how to use her ears.  But boy was she loving this walk, bounding through the grass and stopping to smell what seemed like every blade of grass.  

For her own safety, Imke has learned that when Peaches is on the walk with us, she should lag behind to avoid being knocked over by a silly youngster.  She was loving all of the new scents too and I had to look like a fool with one arm being pulled forward by Peaches and the other behind me dragging Imke along so that we could continue our walk.

Along our walk we saw some very pretty wildflowers.  I have no idea what they are, but I loved them.  We also saw Prairie Dogs.  They were no more than 15 feet away from us making their alert sounds.  Peaches heard them and kept looking, how none of the girls saw them though, I don't know.  They moved too fast for me to get a picture, but they were awfully cute.

The girls were also thrilled that some horse like creature had left deposits along our path.  For those who have never experienced it, horse poop is a delicacy to dogs and my girls cannot resist it.  Before I noticed it there, they were on it chewing away.  Peaches was oblivious to the poop, thankfully, but trying to pull two 65 pound, stubborn, GSPs off a pile of horse poop while a third is trying to pull your arm off to go a different way, well that was a lot of fun!  Thankfully, I caught on to the presence of this magical substance and was more prepared as we continued.  On our return trip, Maddie proceeded to rid herself of all the treats that she had partaken of, thankfully the poop-filled vomit was left on the side of the trail and not in my Jeep.  We had had a good walk and were back in town as it started to rain, so back in the Jeep we went to continue on our journey.

Not long after leaving town, we encountered a black bear on the side of the road having a snack.  He had a big crowd there watching him and I had hoped to get a good picture, however he was quickly scared off by two idiots who jumped out of their car and ran across the road to try to get a picture.  So we continued on.

.Our next stop was Athabasca Falls.  As I was getting the girls out of the Jeep, a loud crash of thunder happened and Peaches and Maddie both had second thoughts about getting out of the car.  But with a little encouragement we were off to see the falls.

As we reached the falls, the rain began to fall and it was pretty hard, but we weren't going to miss the view on the other side, so we continued on with continued encouragement...I had three girls who were not happy with the rain.  But they were troopers!  Peaches was very curious about what was on the other side of the fencing.

After I had gotten a couple of pictures of the girls, a very nice English family asked if they could take my picture with the girls, and I actually said yes!

We continued on our journey with some pretty views along the way, even with the rain.  I especially love rivers or streams that run along the roadside with mountains behind them.

Our next stop was Sunwapta Falls.  At this point there was a very steady rain falling and these falls were a short(less than 0.1 mile) walk down a pretty steep incline, so I left the girls in the Jeep so I could make a quick stop here.  

The canyon at these falls was even better than the falls, in my opinion.  After a short stay, I was back on the road.

At this point we were driving through some very heavy rain and the views were blocked by rain and clouds.  The temperatures dropped from about 63 degrees down to about 40 degrees.  As we drove around a curve in the road, the rain just stopped and we had the most amazing view of a glacier.  The viewpoint stop for this glacier didn't have a very good view,  but I tried to get a good shot-the lighting wasn't very good either, but I promise it was really pretty in real life!

We passed Tangle Falls on the Tangle Creek, a very pretty roadside fall, so it was a quick stop for a picture and then onward to more glaciers.

We had reached Banff National Park at this point and I had determined that we were going to do the hike to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier.  It was quiet the uphill climb to get there, but we all made it.  Peaches was so excited to get up the hill that she hated that we were going so slowly and poor Imke was slowing moving up the hill with her arthritic hips, but it was worth the hike.

 The temperature and wind and pelting pieces of sleet here were not what I had expected.  Boy was it cold!  But it was cool to see the progression of the glacier over the years.    I think that the girls liked this hike the best of everything we did all day.

We left the glacier and not far down the road, the rain cleared up and the sun came out for the rest of our journey toward Banff.  We stopped at several scenic spots along the way.  The views and colors were spectacular.

After a lot of driving and not many chances to get the girls out for a hike, we finally reached Petyo Lake and Bow Summit.  Sometimes I wonder how crazy I am, and then I decide to complete a hike up a hill on a narrow path with three crazy GSPs and lots of  other people.  The climb up wasn't so bad, it was dealing with Peaches who wanted to bound of the path and Maddie who wanted to sniff every tree and eat every piece of grass and Imke who was lagging 6 feet behind me at the end of her leash.  But we made it to the top and we were rewarded for our efforts!

Our next stop was at Bow Lake with a view of Bow Falls and the Bow and Crowfoot Glaciers off in the distance.  The color of the water is so amazing!

It was now getting late in the day and we were nearing the end of our time in Banff, but we did make a quick stop at Lake Louise.  Maddie and Peaches even jumped in for a drink.

And then we were off into the sunset, leaving Banff and heading toward Calgary for the night.

We reached Calgary shortly after 9pm and I hadn't eaten dinner, but thankfully there was a pizza place right in front of my room.  So I quickly unpacked the car, ran to order the pizza, and got the girls out for a walk/potty break.  We had a challenge getting back into our room-the safety latch somehow got latched without us in the room, but thankfully the staff at the hotel was able to quickly fix it and we were in our room for the night after a long, busy, crazy day.

The girls quickly made themselves right at home...and decided that my side of the bed was most comfortable once I sat down to eat my pizza.  And soon they were out for the night and even left me some room to sleep.  It was a good day and we were all happy and comfy and ready for a good night's sleep.  And we were ready to head home to the States the next morning!