Another day trip to Jasper, Alberta
The weather the past few days has fairly consistently been better than forecast, so just after 11:00 am yesterday, I hit the road again, headed for Jasper generally but with no specific plans.
The Hinton CN Rail station is just about 5 minutes from the house. I was hoping that there would be a train schedule online, but apparently freight trains don’t have published schedules.
I caught a glimpse of this mining truck from the highway, and when I went for a look, was at the Natural Resources Interpretive Park. There were 3 kids playing in the cab of the massive truck, though they’re hidden by the shadows in the photo.
When something is really dull I often use the expression that it “has as much character as a Walmart parking lot”. Well, Hinton actually makes their Walmart parking lot look pretty good 🙂
There was quite a lineup at the Jasper National Park gates. Only one window was open, and many people were having to buy passes ($9.80 per day for adults). With my annual Discovery Pass ($67.70), I got waved through when I got to the window.
While it’s great to see the huge drop in fatalities, that’s still quite a number 🙁
Talbot Lake, with the barren hills behind caused by what was named the Syncline Ridge fire in 2003. It was started as a prescribed burn, but in July, temperatures into the 90s(F) along with wind caused it to run wild.
I caught a glimpse of this creek flowing out of Talbot Lake and had to do a U-turn to go back for a better look at it, and an unsigned cairn at the site of the original Jasper House fur trading post.
The herd of bighorn sheep I saw a few days ago was still along the highway.
I spent about 15 minutes watching them this time.
This ram was getting pretty excited about Spring being near, but the ewe in front of him, who he followed for quite a while, just wasn’t buying his story. “Aw, come on, honey!” 🙂
The normal 90 kmh speed limit (56 mph) is reduced to 70 kmh (43 mph) in several locations because of animal activity, but even with fairly heavy police patrols, some people pay little attention, and this yearling had too close a call getting across the highway.
This is the view looking north from the centreline of the 3,900-foot-long grass runway of the Jasper airport (code YJA), located just over 13 km from town.
I added a couple more airplanes to my collection at Jasper, including this beautiful 1961 Piper PA-24 Comanche, C-FBPU.
The side road leading to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, and Maligne Canyon and lake got my attention, and the hotel was my first stop. Being a Fairmont, it was of course beautiful in every way.
The reception desk.
The main lounge.
Another section of the lounge, with huge windows getting the best of the mountain views.
I spent quite a while looking around the lodge, and thought about having lunch there but decided to delay it a bit. Heading up along Maligne Lake Road, I plowed a bit of snow with the car to get into this viewpoint (I love having AWD 🙂 ).
I didn’t reach the top of Maligne Canyon until 2:20 pm, but I’d been here before probably 30 years ago and figured that an hour would be lots of time to see what I wanted. Was I ever in for a surprise! But I have so much to show and tell you about the canyon, I’m breaking it off into a separate post. I hope to get it written this afternoon.
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