To reach Jasper you cruise the 230k Icefields Parkway which has massive sheets of glacial ice flowing down the valley to the road. Tumbling rivers, waterfalls, towering peaks, abundant wildlife and hiking at every bed. There are lakes and glaciers galore the largest of which is 340m thick and can be reached on foot or by special glacier buses. The water you see melting at the bottom of the glacer fell as snow on the icefield about 175 years ago.

Jasper is not as beautiful as Banff being more rugged and more of a mountain supply town The guide book describes it as quaint and quiet, but in July it isn't!!! Again the place was overrun by hire motorhomes parked in every conceivable place. It was also hot.about 35 degrees so in the end we just stayed a couple of nights, caught up on clothes washing etc and left. Before then however it was lucky we had booked a camping place as again this 780 site campground was totally booked up. The campground itself was quite impressive in a totally wooded area but at this time of year too busy. It was kidney shaped, with a small round round the perimeter for 3 miles. Each pitch was quite large and private with a picnic bench and fire pit. Inside the perimeter road are 67, if you like, circular avenues, each having between 12 and 30 wooded pitches. Every three avenues has a toilet block between them but there is only one toilet block with 24 showers for the whole campground!!! It was hilarious watching people wandering around with the site map in their hand trying to find the showers as there are no direction arrrows anywhere. When you did find them it wasn't much better as when I went, after getting totally lost and having to cross a mosquito infested stream in my flip flops there were 8 people in front of me for 5 showers all of them full. Plus camped by the shower block were 2 coach loads of school kids and the showers were full of 13/14 year old girls in their pyjamas doing their hair and pampering themselves before they got into their tents!!!

On leaving Jasper we met by chance another English couple in their motorhome with GB plates and whilst we were talking a German guy pulled up in his German motorhome with German plates. it was like a small section of Europe.