Tuesday - May 24, 2016
We wake up to another glorious view, and even better - fantastic weather! I had planned the Jasper Skytram (if it wasn't overcast) and had my fingers crossed, but didn't order the tickets online because I didn't want to be committed to it if the weather was going to be bad. We ate breakfast and got our things together for another day of adventure!
One of my favorite things about Canada? They're so freaking dog friendly! Bendi was allowed to ride the tram as long as he was either in his bag, or had a muzzle on (you can rent one of theirs). He doesn't like muzzles, so we stuck him in his backpack so he too, could make the ascent onto the Whistlers and see the views that hardcore backpackers and hikers get. I do enjoy technology! Because if not for the Skytram, we would not be seeing these views, because there's no way we'd be hiking 9 miles up. Nope, wouldn't happen.
We roll up in our awesome minivan and I book it to the ticket office to reserve our spots hoping we won't have to wait too long. We got tickets and the wait wasn't too long at all - we just missed the prior one though, because we have too many people in our party to stuff into the tram. But the wait is less than 30 minutes, which we needed for everyone to sort our their stuff (they were still by the car when I was done purchasing our tickets) and pee and just chill for a bit. Bendi has no idea what's going on, but he too is very excited.
Pretty soon it's our time to go up! We load Bendi into his backpack carrier and cram into the Skytram with a bunch of other tourists :)
They all book it in before we do, so they grab the prime window spots - we're about 2 people deep and just grab onto a handstrap and hold on for the 7 minute ride.
We exit and step out onto the platform and the view is glorious! It's nice and clear and we can see all of Jasper and the surrounding area.
The other side of the platform is has some snow that hasn't melted yet. This is very exciting for a family from Southern California, so of course we have to pose with the snow because we're awesome. It's like an attraction unto itself!
Yes, we all had to take turns. Because we are awesome. We finally mosey past the snow to the other side of the platform and take in the view. As well as some photos. Because we can't stop taking photos, it's like a sickness.
And we become super FOBS. We once again break out the selfie stick, but looking at the photos, it's very apparent that my selfie game sucks donkey balls.
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| do you see the lopsided stupid shadow of the selfie stick? I'm so bad with it |
We decide (my parents and I) to try to walk up towards the summit to take a look since well, we're there! And we figure we wouldn't make it very far up anyway since my mom's hip was aching, but we wanted to see how far we could get as well as see what the view looked like from a higher vantage point. Edward and Grace opt to sit and they end up chatting with some very nice people there in a tour group. A fancy tour group, because we ran into the very same people at the Fairmont in Banff!
So we start trudging up. You know who was the superstar? Bendi was the superstar. Because he had a ball. After it started getting steep, it also started getting cold because there were parts of the path that still had snow on it. Oy.
Once it started getting really steep, we would go for a few minutes, then stop to rest, then go for another few minutes. We (rather impressively I thought, for being so aggressively indoors people) actually got pretty far - if we kept going we probably could have made the summit!
Okay, so look at the picture above - to the upper left there are three people hanging around some big rocks. That's where we reached before we decided to turn back. My dad decided he was too tired to keep climbing and also, the melting snow made parts of the trail muddy. And we don't do mud. So we turned back.
But isn't the view fantastic???
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| view of the town of Jasper |
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| More Jasper photos |
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| and this is how far we walked. Actually, we got higher, I took this photo after we started walking back down. |
And of course, we have to take our awesome(ly bad) selfies.
We start walking down, and I look back and snap another photo - it looks kind of like Mars! If Mars were black and gray and had snow on it.
I LURVE this photo. I really do.
So much that I'm putting it on here twice! But actually, it's so I can point stuff out. You're gonna have to click the picture to be able to see anything though!
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| The yellow arrow: Pyramid Lake The orange arrow: Pyramid Lake Resort The red arrow: the town of Jasper |
And because I'm crazy, I did it again!
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| the black arrow: Pyramid Mountain the yellow arrow: Pyramid Lake the orange arrow: Pyramid Lake Resort |
We reach the observation platform to find Grace and Edward hanging out and chatting with other people who also opted not to climb.
I walk around with them a bit and take some photos. Like this:
And this:
We all sit around for a bit to catch our breath.
Except for Bendi, who doesn't need to catch his breath. He's still super excited. Even if we made him wear a red Christmas sweater. In May.
And being super fobby Chinese peeps, I bust out my selfie stick and display my lack of mad photo taking skills. I'm an embarrassment to my people, I can't selfie correctly!
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| see? you can see the freaking selfie stick (hanging my head in shame) |
We ride down. Yay.
And I become strangely fixated on taking pictures of our tram. See that blob below? Yes, that's our shadow.
And also, of the passing tram. Gotta take a photo of that too!
And the train, gotta document that!
And our photo again! Aha! I see us!
And we are done with the Whislers. It's about 1 pm at this point, and we take a vote - we opt to head straight for Athabasca Falls instead of going back to Jasper for lunch and doubling back to Athabasca. We had assorted snacks in the car, so it was a good time to stuff myself full of Koala Yummies (gotta keep up my strength, ya know?) while I was driving to Athabasca.
At some point we see dude. Or gal:
And because I don't know how to ID animals, I don't know what this is. A caribou? A deer? Elk? How about a very large animal in the wild?
After about 25 minutes, we arrive at Athabasca Falls. It probably would have made more sense to see it the next day on our way south to Banff, but I already have Sunwapta Falls and the Columbia Icefield planned! And as we had a free afternoon after the Skytram, I figured this would be the time to knock something off of our list.
It's not the biggest or the most powerful waterfall, but what makes it worth seeing is the backdrop. It's a pretty waterfall with a gorgeous mountain backdrop.
We park in the lot (being it's early in the season, we didn't have a problem finding parking in most places) and take the short walk over to see the falls. There are many bridges to cross to be able to see different sides of the gorge, but this was an easy sight to see as there really wasn't any steep climbing - it was a pretty easy walk to see all of it.
These are the calmer waters that feed into the waterfall.
And we turn the corner and see the falls. Awesome!
We poke our head to the other side and see a rainbow :)
Grace and Edward went back earlier because her foot was bothering her and Bendi went with them, but the three of us continued to explore. We went to the other side of the waterfall and took our awesome selfies.
There's a path down like, 56 steps or something that leads to the lower falls and to see the canyon. So we took it - and they were super easy steps because they were shallow and wide, so it was not just a easy walk down, but an easy walk up.
We make our way down and see the pretty lake the waterfall feeds into. The lake's color shows this is glacier fed. It would be an even better view in the summer!
There are a narrow set of stairs that go up to see the canyon - there's a part where it looks like a dead end, but it's a sharp narrow turn to get to the view below.
From there we can also look down at the lake. The milky blue is more apparent from this angle.
It's still early, but we had back and hit up Bear Paw Bakery to grab some sandwiches. Unfortunately we got there too late for sandwiches (sob!), so we got some bread, croissants and pastries instead. We eat the croissants (which were pretty fantastic) with the deli ham we had purchased a few days before and eat their apple streudel (soo freaking good) along with the dinner rolls we had leftover. We still had some leftover roast chicken, so I had that too, because I can't function without copius amounts of meat.
After lunch we chill out. By chill out I mean to nap. I watch some of ESPN's 30 for 30 that I had downloaded to my Kindle Fire and fall asleep on the couch. My parents also nap and when we wake up, we had some dinner. We had some udon soup base left, so we each had a bowl of udon as well as a soup my mom made with the leftover chicken.
Being that we're basically staying at a tourist site, it's a pity not to explore the lake further, so we walk down to the dock to sit and admire the lake.
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| view from our balcony |
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| Our rooms are in the second building - see the white minivan? That's Marge! She's parked right in front of our rooms. |
We walk down the steep road (we - by we I mean me - are so stupid. There's a set of stairs that lead directly down. Which we discovered on the way up. Oh well) and take a look at the bears decorating the front lawn!
We head down to the docks to enjoy the view. The weather is still gorgeous - we have a fantastic view of the surrounding mountains and the waters are beautiful.
My mom and dad (thus Bendi and I as well) decide to head towards the front lawn and sit there in their colorful adirondack chairs. I mean, it's there, we might as well enjoy them. Looking back at the resort from the dock, all the colorful boats makes the resort look so cheery.
The tiny beach they have along the shore. Coming from So Cal, it's a sad looking beach, but not everything can be perfect. I tend to think though, that the other sights they get to enjoy far outweigh the lack of awesome beaches here.
We settle into their chairs and admire the view from a different perspective. Bendi doesn't really admire the view, he's just happy he gets to come along. Also, I have no idea why of all the chairs my dad picks the picnic table. Oy.
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| Grace enjoying the view from one of the chairs |
We decide to head back. We had back down to Banff the next day, and need to make sure everything is packed.
And...this is when we find the stairs. Doh!
It's about 9 to 9:30 pm when we get back to our rooms - this is the view from the balcony.
We have a full and busy day when we wake up - we drive back down the Icefields Parkway, visit Sunwapta Falls and the Columbia Icefield and head into Banff!
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