Day Six. Obed Lakes to Jasper National Park

We arrived in Jasper, possibly the most amazing place ever to have graced the front of my eyeballs. Waterton was special, yes, but this place was wowza…


Travelling into the park, along the Athabasca River


Mountains here, there and everywhere

I couldn’t help but feel a little put-out by all the other people around… we're not used to that after all this time, particularly as it's supposed to be the off-season. Once we’d visited the information centre and got our bearings, we felt a bit better. We set up camp in a place called Whistlers, which is the only campsite near Jasper town itself that is open in the winter. It was very big, but nice all the same – showers, hot water, free firewood. All for the princely sum of $23 per night…

We had some lunch at a place called Earls, which Jethro’s parents liked very much on their visit. We sat on the terrace in the blistering sunshine – yes, it was still sunny - and had a look at all the leaflets that were heaped upon us in the Visitors Centre.

We also managed to squeeze a small hike into the day – we did an hour’s walk up to a place called Old Fort Point – the views were pretty stunning across the mountains and the town itself. We had a bit of a ‘mini’adventure’ having taken the wrong turn and ended up scaling down a cliff-face – there was a beaten path there, but it was a bit sketchy and very steep in places – all good fun though. We didn’t see anything bigger than a squirrel on the hike, even though there are warnings everywhere that it’s rutting season, so the bull elks are getting their game on with all the lady elks and are a bit over-protective because of it – hence, we could get trampled by one if we get too close. Bears are the least of our worries, it would seem!


The hiking trail up to Old Fort Point


Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fnar fnar!


One of the views on the way up.


Another wonderful view.


Jethro at the top with Jasper in the background.

At the end of our hike, Jethro was convinced that all the wildlife in the park were hiding from us – apart from squirrels. Not so, as I spotted a herd of elk meandering across the road so we stayed and watched them for a bit. We heard the bull elk calling to his females – it sounded very strange as a mating bugle – a bit like a squeaky gate!