Getting to Know Jasper National Park

Jasper National Park in Alberta was high on our list of places to visit on this trek to Alaska.  We've visited Banff and Lake Louise, but heard how beautiful Jasper was and wanted to have time to explore it more fully.

So we set RV roots down in Hinton, Alberta, just outside the north entrance to Jasper, and planned a week worth of adventures.  On our first day in the park, Sunday, August 14, 2016, we drove the hour into the town of Jasper, walked around town, sampled beer from the local brewery, and visited the park's visitor center.  This was not a highly ambitious day, but it allowed us to get our bearings, and, as it turned out, we had plenty of adventure.

The scenery in Jasper is awesome.  In full sun, the cliffs gleam white and make for a dramatic entrance to the park from the north.

One two kilometer section of the highway is the territory of mountain sheep.  We saw them almost every day we drove into the park from our campground.  Here are two young rams --

-- lorded over by the Big Guy:

Lake Edith, which with Talbot Lake, Jasper Lake and Lake Annette, grace the drive south into the town of Jasper:

We even captured our first Jasper red chairs at Lake Edith:

The Athabasca River is the beautiful glacial green thread that runs all through Jasper National Park and links all of the attractions.  South of the town of Jasper, it feeds Athabasca Falls:

The river has dug out large hollowed, cave-like structures in the bedrock, and as the water spills down the falls and through the chute, the depressions in the rocks form churning pools of pastel green foam:

The chute continues for quite some distance before spilling the river out into the wide plain in which it continues its journey:

Driving back north out of the park, we hit a small rain shower, which graced the park with a beautiful double rainbow --

-- a sign that our visit to Jasper National Park would be met with good fortune.

And it was.  Take a look at the next few blog entries!