I managed to get some sleep on all 3 buses despite them all being fairly rickety. We stopped off around 9am to have breakfast. There wasn't a great deal to see scenery wise on the journey, it wasn't until we actually went through to 'Jasper National Park' that the scenery was so lovely. For miles and miles there was lots of lakes, fir trees, and snow capped mountains either side of the bus- it was beautiful.

It has actually been one month today that Kelly and I have been away and it has flown by.

When we got off the bus in Jasper I once again had that feeling of 'it looks like we're in the middle of nowhere!' but we soon found an information centre. It wasn't all good news though- there are only two buses a day that leave from the hostel to Jasper town (the hostel is 7km away up a hill at the foot of a mountain and it is THE closest one to town!) one at 9.00am and one at 5.30pm. And coming back from town to the hostel there is one at 9.15am and one at 5.45pm, which means if you miss either of those or you don't want to go out/come back at those times you have to get a taxi which costs $15.00 (not including a tip) We got here around 12.30 in the afternoon so we just got a taxi.

When we arrived we were told that despite booking the female dorm they are currently renovating it so everyone was in a co-ed dorm which had 48 beds (or 24 bunk beds). It seems ok though.

Also, a lot of things close here after Thanks-Giving weekend so there are things we won't be able to do such as the Tramway gondola, Miette Hotsprings etc. There are also things that we wanted to do/see that are over 30 miles away from town and only accessible with a car- there is no real public transportation here. Two of the girls we met at the Banff hostel have just turned up here and have a car so we're thinking of heading to Maligne Lake with them tomorrow morning as they have very kindly offered us a lift.

We booked three nights here thinking that we'll definitely need to extend it but now I'm not so sure- I think three might be enough. It's going to be difficult to get around here and the activities are so expensive (those that are still open) plus I'm itching to get over to the East side now.