Friday July 31st

Friday we got up early and finished packing up at the time share. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us so we checked out of Fairmont and were on the road by 9:00am. Off to Jasper!

I expected the drive to be scenic, but I never expected it to be as beautiful as it was. Every twist and turn of the road seem to bring new beauty with it. There were so many roadside turnoffs that we couldn't possible stop at as many as we wanted too. We did manage to stop at a few though. My favorite stop was at the Columbia Icefields. I have seen it on the news and commercials before, but honestly I just thought it was a block of ice. lol I would never have guessed that it would capture my attention the way it did. The picture below shows me and the kids walking up toward the glacier from the parking lot. The glacier used to extend further out and much taller than where we are standing in the picture. It tells you how much it has melted over the years. But even the thought of what was still there has been there since the ice ages is purely amazing to me.

After several hours of driving, we decided we were never going to finish everything that we wanted to see in just one day. We decided to stay over night in Jasper. Uh... Friday of a long weekend with no reservations in a tourist area. Can we say $$$$$$$! :(

We did find a nice little place to stay right as you first enter the town. We were relieved to be able to at least find something, it was filling up quickly. We needed to stretch our legs as it was now after 5:00pm (that's a LONG time driving) so we walked around the town site for a bit and got some ice cream, fed the bears...


After we got something to eat ourselves we headed off for the Jasper Hot springs (Miette Hot springs). That was another hour drive each way! The hot springs were nice. The kids had a lot of fun jumping from the hot springs into the cold pool. Which I may add could not have possibly been the 21' it said it was! I am surprised there wasn't ice on it, it was that cold!!

There was a little cafeteria at the hot springs and the fellow running the place was SUPER nice. He gave us tons of ideas as to where to go while we were in Jasper, what stops to make and how to get there. His first suggestion was just down the hill from where we were. We left the hot springs on foot down a path towards the old abandoned hot springs. They closed them in 1984 and have just let them fall apart since then. The hike was about 10 minutes down the path and it was getting dark so we didn't stay long. Plus me and the kids were starting to lose our voices from trying to make enough noise to keep the bears away!

After running like crazy walking back to the van we finally headed back to Jasper and went to bed. The beds were hard as rock but we were all so exhausted it didn't matter. lol I Couldn't even tell you which one of us fell asleep first.