 Jasper Park Lodge |
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Jasper Park Lodge is in (logically!) Jasper National Park. We were up early at Chateau Lake Louise and off we went up the Icefields Parkway. This is a pretty incredible drive through the mountains. Along the way we saw Bow Lake, Peyto Lake and stopped at Crowfoot Glacier. At Athabasca Glacier we stopped and took the tour out onto the glacier. One thing you notice right away, glaciers tend to produce their own weather and it is COLD! However, walking around on the surface and sampling good scotch in 300+ year old glacial melt water is an experience well worth the cold. The deep blue of the ice is also something to see.
After the glacier, we continued north towards Jasper Park Lodge. Along the way, we stopped at Sunwapta Falls for lunch. Phia and I picniked along the river and then hiked down to the falls. Really lovely and impressive. Later, we also visited Athabasca Falls.
Probably we had done too much the day before and stayed up too late (or got up too early or both) or perhaps were reacting to the altitude, because when we got to the Lodge, we were both pretty wiped out. In fact, Phia skipped dinner altogether. It was interesting to see elk grazing on the grounds. While we were there, a provincial governers meeting was going on which made for some serious confusion around the Lodge. We had to wait 3 hours for our room, which added to our exhaustion.
It wasn't until the next morning we felt like walking around and getting a sense of the place. It really is lovely. It was a brisk, sunny morning which added to our enjoyment of the walk. For lunch, we went up to Pyramid Lake and had sack lunches on an island in the lake. Perfect! Then on our way to Jasper Townsite to catch our train.