So its north to Jasper National Park and we are driving the famous Icefields Parkway Highway 93. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful roads in the world. It takes you through Banff National Park and then into Jasper National Park and on the way you can stop off at numerous points to take in nature at its best. There are waterfalls, gorges, lakes, glaciers, mountains and many other natural landmarks to ooh and ahh at to your hearts content. The drive can be done in about 3 1/2 hours but to give you an idea of how much there is to see on the road it took us 9 hours to get to the hotel!! Within an hour we had visited countless lakes and a couple of amazing glaciers. We had taken so many photos and every few minutes we were pulling over again to have another look around and take more pictures. About halfway up the road you get to the Ice Fields which are a group of glaciars which descend from a huge field of ice within the rocky mountains. It is the largest accumulation of ice south of the arctic circle and lucky for us they have huge ice exploring vehicles which allow you to go onto one of the larger glaciers and actually walk on the ice! You will see from the photos that the explorer vehicles are huge and they would need to be as the glaciers are immense, our photos dont even begin to show how huge they are! The trip takes 90 minutes and it is really cool to walk on a glacier which is 300 metres deep and has ice that is hundreds of years old, even some of the trees around the glaciers were dated at 700 years old. Once you get to the top you can get off the explorer and have 20 minutes to walk around on the glacier. There are rivers running down channels in the ice which have the coldest, freshest water i have ever tasted all melting out of the glacier and running down the mountains into the rivers and lakes below. You then return to the base camp able to say something you dont get to say every day "We walked on a glacier today"! It was then back in the car to take in more of what we had seen in the morning, waterfalls, lakes and wonderful scenery around every corner! Of all the amazing things we had seen that day i think one of the more moving sights was waiting for us just around the corner. A black bear eating at the side of the road totally ignoring the fact that there were people stopping in their cars to take photos. It really made our day to get to watch a bear in the wild munching away! We continued up the road stopping for Mike to climb to the top of a waterfall while i waited at the bottom to take photos. We were almost at the hotel when we noticed a few cars pulled over at the side of the road so we pulled in behind them to see what had everyones interest. There were two massive elk with huge antlers grazing at the side of the road again totally oblivious to what was going on around them! We watched them for a while, took a few photos before heading on to our hotel. After a marathon drive we checked in to our hotel and with it having been such a long day we were both exhausted so we just relaxed in the room as we had another busy day ahead of us!

Day 2 and we decieded to take in Maligne Lake Road and all of the sights that this route had to offer. Our journey got off to an exciting start when we were driving along and i noticed something at the side of the road. As we got closer we realised it was a female elk so we slowed to a stop beside her and almost as if she knew we were waiting for her she trotted right across the road in front of us with her nose in the air. It was so funny and perfectly timed on our part. The first stop on the route was Maligne Canyon which is Jaspers deepest gorge, the maligne river has carved a 50 metre gorge through the solid limestone of the rockies. You cant really imagine how deep the gorge is until you spit over the edge and it takes an age to get to the bottom!! All joking aside it is a really impressive sight, you can see all the curves and shapes that the water has worn into the rock over thousands of years. You can still hear the power of the water at the bottom continuing to shape the rock in its path. We decided to take the 6km hike to the lower canyon passing the 6 bridges which cross the river. You start at the hightest point and it is down hill all the way until you are at the same level as the river and the canyon has opened up. We had a picnic sitting on a rock at the side of the river before tackling the uphill trek back to the car. As you would expect the steep climb was the hardest part of the trail and i have never been so happy to get to the top and relax on the final and most impressive bridge on the trail. The next stop was medicine lake and as expected it was beautiful (plenty of photos enclosed). This lake is special because the local native americans used to believe that spirits inhabited the lake as the water level fluctuates wildly throughout the year sometimes completely emptying in fall and winter. It was later discovered that the emptying water is due to an underground drainage system which drains away the water every year. The lake is one of the largest "sinking" lakes in the western hemisphere. It certainly had plenty of water when we were there with their actually being so much water that the trail around the lake was submerged so we couldnt walk right around. It was still an impressive sight and would be really interesting to see it completely drained in winter! The final landmark on the road was the Maligne lake itself or we shall rename it mosquito lake for the purpose of this blog!! We tried to take a rest at the edge of the lake to have some water and just sit down for a while. Within 15 minutes we were bombarded with hundreds of mosquitos and whilst we werent getting bitten due to the insect repellant we were wearing it was still pretty scary and not worth the risk so we had to get up and keep moving! We started to walk the trail around the lake and got about 30 minutes in when we were bombarded again by mosquitos and by this time we had enough and didnt want to be eaten alive and left to the bears so we turned round and headed back to the car. We decided before heading back to the hotel for dinner we would go into Jasper town centre for a look around. It was much as you would expect a mix of cafes, restaurants and tourist shops surrounded by gorgeous mountain views. Within an hour we had seen everything the town had to offer in all its over priced glory so we got an ice cream and headed back to the hotel. Jasper had one more thing to offer us on our way out a quick glimpse of a white tailed deer in the middle of a traffic island having her dinner, it was the perfect end to another lovely day in Canada!

Day 3 and unfortunately our last day in the national park. We were both gutted as we had loved every minute and wished we had longer to go exploring. With our last day we decided to go to pyramid mountain and the lake she is rumoured to reflect perfectly in, Patricia Lake! In all the guide books we had looked at there was one thing that always caught my eye. The photos where the mountain landscapes reflect perfectly on the surface of a lake. When we arrived in Alberta I promised myself that i would get one of those photos of my own! So far all the lakes we had visited, and there were a lot, had all been too choppy to reflect anything. So today our last day was to be THE Day!! We went to the shop to get our picnic supplies and then headed out to the lake. We arrived and before getting lunch or doing our hike i wanted to get our photos. We walked around the side of the lake looking for any reflections and there were some faint ones however it was still a bit choppy so the pictures werent what we wanted! We took a few disapponting shots and then headed back to the picnic area at the other side of the lake. Suddenly when we reached the end of the lake everything went very silent and the water was as still as glass and there it was a beautiful perfect reflection of the snow capped mountain o the water. We dared not breathe and actually tiptoed to the edge of the lake, i climbed up onto Michaels shoulders and got the perfect snap. I bet everyone who looks at the photos will think "yea big deal" but the moment was perfect and in my eyes the photo is amazing and i love it!! That and the fact that it must have been hilarious to watch mike and i tiptoeing thru the long grass and me crawling onto his shoulders to take a photo!! We rewarded our good efforts with a nice picnic by the lake which rather strangely had no mosquitos?? We had done a lot of walking over the last week so whilst we were keen to go exploring around this beautiful lake. The guide book listed this hike as an easy, flat and pleasant 5 km stroll. All those who know me will know whats coming next....... The first 20 minutes of the walk was exactly what we signed up for it was pretty pleasant and very remote so great to have the walk to ourselves. The walk then started to climb up the steep bank around the lake, it became very unmaintained with the path frequently being blocked by huge fallen trees or massive rocks. Trying to tackle the very uneven footing while balancing on the very steep bank of the river at times seemed near impossible. The higher the path climbed the more at risk you felt, if you were to fall it was a long way down!! At times we couldnt see where we were and the path seemed to disappear then reappear from nowhere. By the time we realised this was a pretty gruesome hike it was too late to turn round so we had to keep scrambling on. Eventually we walked the first half of the circumnavigation of the lake and at last things started to level out with a proper well defined path! We stopped at the lake side to soak and cool off our burning feet before finishing the hike and feeling very pleased with ourselves. As a treat for completing this gruelling challenge we spent the afternoon in the Miette natural hot springs. Three pools at temperatures ranging from a very pleasant 40 degrees to a very unpleasant 15 degrees. I did the freezing plunge pool once and spent the rest of the day dipping in and out of the hot pool. Michael was more of a glutton for punishment and went in and out of the two. It was lovely to relax in the outdoor pool surrounded by the beautiful rocky mountains.

So that was our stay in Jasper and our taste of the Rockies over. Without a doubt it has been the most beautiful place we have visited so far. It will take some beating to find something that has as much to offer as the national parks of Alberta. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it is everyone has to go there at least once in their life to see what i cant stop raving about! Next stop Vancouver Island!