Jasper BC to Glacier Nat'l Park MT - a farewell to Canada, eh?

We made our way from Dawson Creek back to Jasper National Park where we stayed at Whistler's Campground again.  Along the way, we saw a coyote just south of Grand Prairie, several deer along the way and these elk once we reached Jasper:

Nice Rack!

We wanted to wrestle this one elk's antlers for Sam Taylor . . . but he gave that "go for it and I won't be the only one with antlers growing on me" look:

We stayed in Jasper for a couple nights.  The next morning we drove out to Maligne Lake to take a cruise out to Spirit Island.   Unfortunately soon after getting on the boat the clouds rolled in and the rain came down when we hit spirit island.  We still managed to see some beautiful sights anyway:

Beautiful blue/green water!

On our way back to the dock the the sun broke out again which just enhances the colors:

Despite the weather, the trip was worth it!  The scenery back on shore is beautiful too:

This would be a great place to rent a kayak and cruise the lake..  On the road back to Jasper we ran into this little black bear:

In case you can't tell, he's hanging about 25' up in a tree (check out the paw):

Check him out- eating the balsam poplar's fruits:

We also drove up route 16 east a few miles and found our coyote friend up there:

He was in a zone watching another coyote trot by . . . which he ended up following.  We also drove up 93a toward Athabasca Falls and saw this big ole brown black bear on the way:

and this little black black bear:

We eventually made our way up to Athabasca Falls:

Jasper is a great place to visit!  The drive from jasper to Banff through the Columbia Icefields is incredible too!  The whole drive is breathtaking!  Aside from the Icefields and glaciers, you have to stop by Peyto Lake and make the short steep hike - worth it!

No color enhancing going on here- it's glacial sediment, reflection and refraction doing it's thing.  Must see if driving by!  There's also a rest stop along the way with a very cool waterfall across the street:

Aside from the beauty of Banff Nat'l Park, they have several bridges constructed just for animals to cross the highway (it's all dirt with trees and shrubs on the top):

We made the mistake of trying to hit Lake Louise with our trailer in tow.  The crowds are officially here!  Needed people to move their cars just to get our rig through the parking lot and back out.  We decided to take 93 south from here to Glacier Nat'l Park West.  The drive was beautiful (here's a pic with the camera through the sunroof while driving):

Going down one massive hill passing through Kootenay Nat'l Park we ran into a short delay from this tanker that rolled over:

Hopefully the driver was OK!  With the river running on the other side of the street, looks like another ground water testing job for Jeff & Kyle!  Make sure to stop at Peyto Lake guys!  More beautiful scenery along the way to Cranbrook BC where we stopped for the night (another thru the sunroof pic):

We stayed the night at Mt Baker RV Park.  This placed looked questionable at first being located pretty much on the edge of downtown Cranbrook but once we got settled it worked out great!  Full hookups, wifi, cable and these guys were OK with us washing our vehicles - 1st place in 9 months!  People that ran the place and the seasonals staying there were all very nice.  Short trip from here to Glacier Nat'l Park the next day.  Here's a sneak peak.

More to come . . .