Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
The day began, once again, with a Lisa-pigging-out session.
We purchased the combined gondola and buffet tickets, thereby giving me free reign to clean out the dining hall with my monstrous appetite. Three coffees, three iced teas, a whopping plate of vegetables, an overflowing plate of pasta and rice, two generous slices of cake, and a cup of fruit. It got to the point where the kitchen and cleaning staff knew me by sight. There was one man in particular, who appeared out of nowhere, no less than three times to answer random musings I had directed at no one in particular. Hilarious. Add to that the fact that the music blaring was all songs from my iPod, so I knew all the words. Of course I could not resist belting out “Kryptonite” in the line, a shout-out to my unrequited love Jason Varitek, but luckily another man joined me in song. He even upped the ante by whistling whilst cleaning. Impressive. 
The gondola ride at Lake Louise was pretty incredible. The actual Lake Louise was so far off in the distance, and yet such a striking blue-green. It was amazing to realize we have canoed across that thing. Once atop the peak, we ran into two giant Chinese tour groups, so of course Auntie had to chat them up. We discovered they were all from the Beijing area and their white translator was a Mormon missionary. 
The road between Jasper and Banff National Parks is known as the Icefields Parkway, supposedly one of the most beautiful roads in the world. On the drive up, we were pressed for time so we only stopped at a handful of places: Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, and Waterfowl Lakes and Mts. Chephren and Howse. 
Our campground in Jasper was nothing special, just somewhere to spend the night. It was out about 14 kilometers from the main road, south of the town of Jasper, which, for whatever reason, describes itself as both “Stunning” and “Formidable” on its welcome sign. Ominous sign?
Like Banff, Jasper is a little town nestled underneath these sky-scraping mountains. Jasper, however, is significantly less touristy. Interesting and revealing side fact: Workers at their one grocery store are unfamiliar with tofu. The scandal!
No comments:
Post a Comment