waterfall video*45s (36MB)*
(Click on each photo to toggle between thumbnail and larger image.)
Saturday, September 4We spent the night in Hinton, Alberta, just north of Jasper National Park, and the next day drove south through the park toward Calgary. We had made good time down the Alcan and were able to take our time in the park, with frequent stops. The weather was very nice, and while we happened to pass through on a Saturday, the park wasn't horribly crowded. We came upon a sizeable herd of deer just north of the town of Jasper, near Palisades Centre. |
Left of pass |
pass sign |
Mercedes |
| Now that the Alaska Highway is paved the entire way, vehicles don't get nearly as dirty as they used to. |
| waterfall video *45s (36MB)* |
upstream |
 pothole video*9s (4.6MB)* |
downstream |
top of stairs |
"landing" |
more stairs |
at bottom |
"Giant Pothole" |
lower canyon |
| Eventually we continued south from Athabasca Falls. |
| Mountain view just below "Goats & Glacier Lookout". |
| Then we took the short detour down to Sunwapta Falls, and found a friendly squirrel in the parking lot. |
Golden Mantle Squirrel |
| We continued on to Stutfield Glacier Viewpoint... |
| Stopped briefly at Tangle Creek Falls... |
| Took a photo of the Columbia Icefield Skywalk... |
| And finally reached the Athabasca Glacier. Mom & Dad had gone out onto the glacier years ago, but it has receded a whole lot more since then (and the price of a tour has gone way up), so we appreciated it from the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre, for free. |
| We spent about 45 minutes at Athabasca Glacier and browsing the Discovery Centre gift shops, where I found a small gift for my bird-sitter back in Texas. Then we continued onwards to Mistaya Canyon (south of Saskatchewan River Crossing), where we stopped for lunch around 2pm. |
Weeping Wall |
Weeping Wall |
Mt. Amery |
 canyon video*41s (50MB)* |
| We passed Crowfoot Glacier on our way out of the park... |
| And drove under a wildlife bridge south of Castle Junction, on the way down to Banff. |
| By this point Dad was very much in need of gas for the 'yota, and we made the mistake of trying to stop off in Banff to fill his tank. This photo does NOT do the crowds justice at all. Banff is as much of a tourist-trap town as you could ever wish to avoid (especially on a Saturday afternoon!) and was jam-packed full of tourists. It was so cramped and crowded that we were unable to find any gas stations that could accommodate a pickup pulling a U-Haul trailer. We fled as quickly as we could, and fortunately Dad had enough gas (barely) to make it to Canmore, where we had no trouble getting into a gas station and refueling. |
Banff |
| From Canmore we drove to Calgary, where we spent the night at a Super 8 on MacLeod Trail. |
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