We only had about a hundred miles to go to get to my planned campground in Jasper National Park. It was a little rainy as we disconnected utilities and headed out around 9:30 a.m., but the rain eventually quit. I took a couple shots through the windshield as it cleared up a little.
We passed through Mt. Robson Provincial Park, home to Mt. Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The mountain was hidden by clouds, but we did have a bear sighting.
It didn't stick around long given a little traffic and the paparazzi.
Okay, so we left British Columbia and entered Alberta where we are now on Mountain time, only two hours behind Eastern time. I forgot to take that into account this morning, but it didn't matter.
We came to the west entrance of Jasper National Park. So, there is a daily park admission fee of $9.80 CAD per person or you can get a Canada National Parks annual Discovery Pass for $67.70 CAD per person ($57.90 for age 65+). Since we will be in Jasper and Banff National Parks for seven days, it saved us a couple dollars to get the Discovery Pass ($67.70 X 2 people = $135.40 CAD X 0.75 = $101.55 USD approximately). So, if you are going to be in Canada National Parks for seven days or more in a year's time, the Discovery Pass is a better deal. It's not good for Provincial Parks, so make sure you'll be visiting National Parks.
At the entrance, they had a sign showing which campgrounds were full and which ones had availability. A couple of the campgrounds that don't take reservations had availability, but they were campgrounds that had 25 to 27-foot RV length limits, and we didn't want to chance those with our 29 feet plus the Jeep.
About three miles south of where Canada 16 (Yellowhead Highway) meets Hwy 93, the Icefield Parkway, we pulled into the Wapiti Campground in Jasper National Park. I mentioned the other day that 1) Whistler Campground, the park's largest campground with almost 800 sites is closed for renovation until 2021, and 2) Wapiti has a section (AA) that is first come, first served with electric sites (basically a parking lot).
So, due to the closure of Whistler, I knew that campsites might be hard to come by, but our experience has been we've been able to snag first come, first served sites by arriving around check-out time (11:00 a.m. here). Of course, I thought we would be arriving around noon, rather than 1:00 p.m. due to my failure to remember the time change.
However, as I said before, it didn't matter. All the first come, first served sites in Wapiti were gone much earlier.
So, this is how it works. I'll try to explain it best I can.
All the reservable sites in Wapiti are always reserved this time of year, so if you don't have a reservation, your only option in this campground is the AA section (for what it's worth, I tried to get a reservation a few days ago). Section AA has 40 first come, first served sites. If you get one, you can stay for up to 14 days, but there is always turnover each day, so you can get one IF you know how the system works.
We were told to show up between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. to get a site in AA. You see, we are used to just being able to extend our stay in a non-reservable site by renewing anytime before check-out the next day. But here, you have to let them know if you want to stay by 10:00 p.m. the night before. If you don't they assume you are leaving, and they will give your site away when the Wapiti entrance office opens the next morning at 8:00 a.m. If you don't renew the night before, in order to retain a site, not necessarily the site you had, you would have to get in line with everyone else at 8:00 a.m. and re-book.
Since we didn't arrive until after 1:00, the available sites for today were long gone. We saw the "Campground Full" sign at the park entrance station and at the campground. Of course, that never deters us. Perhaps that didn't apply to the first come, first served sites, or perhaps no one took the signs down yet, or maybe there has been a change since the signs were posted - it happens, we know as we've gotten sites in "full" campgrounds many times.
This time, however, they were in fact full. But by stopping and asking, we learned 1) how the system to get a first come, first served site works, and 2) that there is an overflow campground about 10 miles north of Jasper town simply called Overflow Campground. It opens when all the major campgrounds in the park are full. It doesn't have hook-ups, but it has sites that will fit any size rig.
At least we had a sure-fire place to stay. We drove to Snaring Road off Hwy 93, and then we passed the Snaring Campground (a first come, first served campground that has a 27-foot limit) which was already full. We crossed a blue-green, very rough bridge ....
over the Snaring River ....
and went a short distance to the Overflow Campground.
We decided to go ahead and book two nights there, as I planned on getting up early to hike in the morning so we'd miss the timeframe to get an AA site at Wapiti. They assigned us Site A19. The rate is currently about $16 CAD or $12 USD.
Apparently, the Overflow is a fairly recent addition and has been improved over the last few years. I found photos from 2015 when it was just a big field. Now it has what looks like about four hundred designated sites with gravel roads and parking pads plus new vault toilets, trash receptacles, and potable water stations. AND magnificent views.
I was actually pretty shocked by how nice it is for an "overflow" campground. There are no hook-ups, and no trees, but it does have great views and it works quite well for those of us with solar panels. The only reason we would have preferred a site at Wapiti was the electric hook-ups to keep the temps down on our chest freezer full of Alaskan salmon.
It was about 3:00 p.m. when we got parked and there were maybe 20 RVs there. By dark there were probably a 150 - 200.
After getting settled, I chose a scenic drive out Maligne Road to Maligne Lake and a short hike on the way at Maligne Canyon. All those "Malignes" are apparently pronounced "muh-LEEN".
On the way, a couple of elk cows were feeding by the road.
And I took this photo just before we pulled into the canyon parking lot. Pine Beetles have wreaked havoc on the trees in the park, so all my photos have photos of reddish-brown dead trees.
The Maligne Canyon parking lot was pretty full. We're pretty surprised by how many people are here in the park and, just like Alaska, there are rental RVs everywhere.
The Maligne River flows from Medicine Lake (which we would see later) and then goes underground before re-emerging just above the canyon. It then flows through this narrow canyon which is up to 150 feet deep.
There are several bridges over the canyon, and you can use the first three to make a loop trail known as the Upper Canyon Loop. A sign says it'll take 20 minutes, but if you do it in 20 minutes, you've probably run over a few people and missed a few nice views.
The trail starts next to the Maligne Canyon Wilderness Kitchen.
The river flows under the road bridge ....
and then carves the rocks .....
as it descends into the canyon.
We followed the path down to the first bridge where there was a pretty tall waterfall in the canyon.
This is the view deep into the canyon from the second bridge.
Looking back up to the second bridge from below.
Moving down the path toward the third bridge. It was a little damp, so there were some slick spots.
View down to the falls that flow under the third bridge.
Beautiful waterfall and view up-canyon from just above the third bridge.
Waterfall from the third bridge.
And this is looking down-canyon from the third bridge.
From below the third bridge looking back up at two waterfalls.
This is the down-canyon view from the fourth bridge.
Canyon view from somewhere below the fourth bridge.
Down-canyon as the river flows on.
From there, we turned around and headed back up. The trail continues on down to a fifth and sixth bridge making for a 2.25-mile one-way hike, but I didn't intend to do that extra walking since I was already pushing it getting Linda to do a little hiking on a travel day.
Back at the third bridge, there is a return trail on the opposite side of the canyon that is a one-mile return to the trailhead completing the "skinny loop". There are no fences or railings on that side, and it's just an uphill dirt path, but there are some really nice views from there.
Eventually, we made it back to the Jeep after what I believe was about a 2-mile fairly easy walk/hike.
From there, we drove out the Maligne Lake Road.
At about the half-way mark is Medicine Lake, which looks like a regular lake in the summer.
It's actually formed each Spring and Summer and drains starting in the late Fall and into Winter. It's like a bathtub with a slow drain. In the Spring, the water comes in faster via the Maligne River than it can drain out, but when the snowmelt is all gone, it drains faster than it fills and becomes basically a mudflat with the frozen Maligne River as just a strip along the bottom.
The turnout and viewpoint was packed and had a tour bus in it, so we continued on until we got some decent lighting for a photo.
Just after that, there was a "bear jam". A Black Bear was at the lake edge, and we watched as it took a drink and then a quick dip. As we maneuvered around the stopped vehicles, we stopped at a point where the bear was just starting to climb back up.
I got some decent shots - better than I expected - before the crowd got to us.
We got out of there and continued along Medine Lake ....
and on to the end of the road at Maligne Lake.
The parking lot was full and there were multiple tour buses there, so Linda opted to stay in the Jeep while I got out to take some photos. The lake is known for its blue water and good photo ops. Unfortunately, it was a gray afternoon, so the colors didn't pop, but it was still pretty.
I took shots of the lake with the mountains and the boat house where you can rent canoes and kayaks.
You can also find the Maligne Lake Cruise tours here.
They get great reviews, but after our fantastic summer, I was afraid we would be underwhelmed for the price, so we skipped it.
After a couple more photos, .....
I walked past The View restaurant which looked like a great place for a meal with a view.
I joined Linda back in the Jeep and we headed back toward Jasper along the Maligne River.
At Medicine Lake, the bear we saw earlier was still hanging out, and the "bear jam" was worse. Yikes.
We didn't even try to stop and take pictures this time.
Around the end of Medicine Lake, the lighting turned nice enough for one last shot of the lake.
Back at the Icefield Parkway, we turned right along the beautiful Athabasca River.
We then went through an "elk jam", and Linda slowed down just enough for me to snap this shot of a bull lying in the grass.
It's rutting season and the bull elk can be aggressive, so there are warning signs everywhere.
Back at the campground, I took a couple shots of our rig as more RVs started coming in.
After dinner, I went back out on a night drive but other than a rabbit and a few distant elk, I didn't see anything else.
Well, that's it for our first day in Jasper National Park. No bad luck on this Friday the 13th.
The plan is to spend four nights here before moving south to Banff National Park. Stay tuned to see what we might get into.
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