We decided to go up the Icefields Parkway over the weekend. The forecast said rain every day, but we were optimistic.
Our first stop enroute was Sunwapta Falls:
About 5 minutes after getting into Jasper, we saw this black bear by the train tracks:
We saw a few more black bears through the weekend, but neglected to take any more photos of them. We went to our first choice of campsite (Snaring River), but sadly the road was flooded and under a foot or two of water. So instead, we went to the Whistlers campsite. It rained a lot through the night, so we ended up scrapping a backpacking trip and went for a 27km bike ride instead.
The next day we took the tram up The Whistlers, and then walked to the summit. The girl in the tram misled everyone into thinking that there was waist deep snow on the way up, so we were basically the only people there.
The chipmunk didn't seem terribly scared of us:
On the way down the mountain we ran into a lot of people who kept asking us if we had seen the bear. Apparently there was a Grizzly bear somewhere on the top of the mountain, and a couple of rangers went up with guns and rubber bullets.
We headed to Miette Hotsprings, but went the wrong way and ran into this waterfall along Highway 16:
Sean also decided to test out his wetsuit and went for a swim in Talbot Lake.
He doesn't appear to have hypothermia, so I'd say the wetsuit worked.
After our day of "rest" we apparently thought it would be a good idea to do a 27km (round trip) canoe trip on Maligne Lake. We camped at Fisherman's Bay, and discovered why we were so cold (apart from it raining on us, and it being windy): apparently the ice only melted two weeks ago...
The outhouse was also very unique.
No, there are no walls. And yes, that is a barrel underneath the seat.
It came with this delightful message:
I'm not sure who exactly is going to volunteer to drag a barrel of raw sewage off the platform and replace it with a new one, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that it's not me.
The only other people at the campsite were a couple of fishermen, which is pretty lucky since people apparently book the site up to 3 months ahead of time... (we booked it the day before)
After hours of paddling, we eventually made it back to the truck and stopped at Maligne Canyon.
On our way back home we stopped and did some sightseeing. This is Athabasca Falls:
The Columbia Icefields:
Peyto Lake:
We also picked up a German along the way:
The end.
