All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Canadian Rockies – August 20-21

Jasper National Park – Saturday August 20

After completing the drive down the Cassier Highway, we drove back onto the Yellow Head Highway.  A mostly 2 lane road that goes from just west of Winnipeg to Prince Rupert on the Pacific coast.  On the drive out, we took the Yellow Head most of the way from its origin as far as Edmonton.  The Yellow Head took us from the end of the Cassier Highway right to Jasper.  Wow, what a beautiful area, but since it was at the end of our trip we only had enough time to be able to do a drive through.  There was no time for any in depth exploration.  Jasper National Park and the Canadian Rockies are definitely a place I want to come back to some day.  We dropped our trailer off at the campground and drove out to Melange Lake.  Snow-melt or ice field melt is different than glacial melt.  Snow-melt produces the icy cold, crystal clear fast moving streams and beautiful lakes that we all want our beer to be brewed from.  Glacial melt produces a lot of sediment in the water that will clog a water filter in a split second but is a beautiful milky blue color.  Melange Lake is a snow-melt lake with many kayakers and people just hanging around picnicking.  It was just breathtaking.

Being tired from the 6 weeks of travel, we took a short trip into the town of Jasper instead of doing any hiking.  To me, the town although pretty was nothing impressive just a gathering place for tourists.  Back at the campground, it was dinner and to bed early.

Banff National Park – Sunday August 21

We were up early and headed out onto the Ice Fields toward Banff National Park.  One of the really interesting things along the way was the road construction.  The entire highway was fenced, and I mean fenced with a 6-foot fence. The highway and access roads either had “Texas grates” the gutter-grate like things in the road so animals can’t walk on them or jump over them, thereby keeping them out of the towns and off the highways.  Across the highways, the road crews were building wide animal bridges every few miles.  These were also fenced and landscaped so the animals would have a place to cross the highway.  They were quite interesting.  I would like to see them once all of the landscaping is fully grown and naturalized.

On to the Ice Highway… What a beautiful drive.  Although we were much closer to other glaciers and ice fields during our trip, this drive has to be one of the most spectacular I have ever witnessed.  I was expecting the actual drive to be very harrowing but it really wasn’t too bad except for a couple of the passes that we had to drive through.  We couldn’t go to Lake Louise because there was a sign warning that the road was too narrow and twisty for trailers and RV’s and since we were camping in Banff, it wasn’t feasible to drop the trailer and drive back an hour.  Instead, we did a little driving around the Banff area, mostly by accident because we couldn’t find the campground.  We did find a very pretty glacial-melt lake.  The campground in Banff was nice as far as national park campground amenities go, it had electric, water and sewer at the site.  I have never seen that in a US national park.  It was a beautiful evening and I sat outside for what seemed to be forever and just kicked back.

Since I’ve always been a tent camper, one of the observations that I’ve made this summer is when there are RV parks, most of the people stay indoors.  Most RV parks where we stayed didn’t even have campfire rings, I guess because they never get used.  To me sitting around a campfires is what camping is all about…

Now it is officially time to head home and get ready to go back to work.  An added benefit this year is that I am finished with my grad program and won’t be going back to both work and school at the same time.

All Good Things Must Come to an End – August 23

I hope all of you that have been following my blog have enjoyed going on my trip with me.  I have enjoyed writing this blog and hopefully you have enjoyed reading it.  I decided to blog primarily because it has helped me to remember the amazing sites I have seen, many of the things I have done and some of the feelings I have experienced as well as all that I have learned about myself and the people I have met and the places I visited this summer. 

The trip was planned to be 49 days long, but it was cut a few days short by my choice.  Tom and I have parted ways and I have chosen to fly home from Bismarck, ND.  It has been an experience unrivaled to any that I have had in my 52 years.  I have grown immensely and have done things that I never thought possible and I have absolutely no regrets.

I am home all safe and sound now and ready to pick up my life where I left off at the end of the school year.  Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers for safe travels on this amazing experience J

Kate