Our Alaskan Adventure 2015: Day 9: Banff, Alberta to Jasper, Alberta

Another long day of driving took us up to Jasper, Alberta from Banff. I could have easily stayed in the adorable town of Banff a few more days; maybe next time! We drove through the mountains and spotted the wilderness bridges I’d read about; they are bridges built over the highways for use by the animals in the national parks, to prevent them from crossing the road. I suppose this in combination with the high fences alongside the highway help protect both animals and drivers.

Wilderness Bridge encourages wildlife to safely cross highway

Our first stop was at Lake Louise, an alpine lake my dad had read about that is said to be very beautiful. It was. It was a lovely turquoise-blue and half covered in ice. Dad was disappointed; I think he expected it to be bigger than it was and have a better reflection of the snowy mountains. It was cute, but packed with tourists. Desi enjoyed walking over to the hotel on the lake and viewing its clock tower (of course) and jabbering near the waterfalls. It had become clear at this point that waterfalls had become his favorite natural feature.

Lake Louise

A stream flowing from the lake

Lake Louise resort's clock tower

On north we went, stopping to view the Columbian Icefields, a large glacier and its fingers extending through the Canadian Rockies. In the distance, you could see tour buses driving over the glacier. We drove a bit more to Tangle Creek Falls, a nice little waterfall right along the highway that ran off under the road. Desi enjoyed how close we could get to the falls and enjoyed showing the water off to his clock. Boy, that clock sure has been able to see a lot on this trip!

Dad modeling in front of our home away from home

Glacier at Columbian Icefields (can you see a bus?)

Parking lot with a view

Tangle Creek Waterfall

Big Clock gets a close look


Desi enjoys a waterfall up close

We finally ended up in Jasper, which we all agreed was not nearly as cute as Banff. Although the town of Jasper was a bit of a disappointment, we walked around and found two clock towers, one that we could walk up to (sort of) and bought some ice cream at Grandma’s Place. The owners were incredibly friendly and gave everyone an extra, free, half-scoop of ice cream. We spotted Kinder Eggs for sale, and Dad treated Desmond to one. He was thrilled, since he didn’t know I bought the eggs for him in Banff (I’ll save them for later). He was so excited that the cashier gave it to us for a discounted price and he loved the “gear” (a top with a marker in it) that was inside the egg. We walked around town a bit more to look at a totem pole and an old locomotive. Desmond taught me all about the engine (he was imagining the facts; he doesn’t know nearly as much about trains as he does clocks).

Desi and Tommy in a clock tower

Grandpa giving Desi a Kinder Surprise Egg

Shopping in Jasper

Totem pole in Jasper

View of downtown Jasper

Desi teaching me about trains

We headed over to Whistlers campground, which was my favorite campground of the trip. The campground was huge, but the sites were wooded with picnic tables and fire rings (finally!). They even had wood to burn, so Tommy and Dad (and Desi) picked up some wood to burn. Desmond was happy to find some wood balance beams and stumps to play on and I grabbed some glitter glue for him to play with at the table. He loved creating pictures with it. Then we got out the bubbles, which both kids had fun looking at and chasing. We really got Trudy laughing looking at the bubbles. We all enjoyed some s’mores after Dad grilled us some chicken thighs. Mom and I enjoyed the long northern daylight and sat around the fire until it started to get dusky, around 10:30 p.m.