Day Five - Thursday

Thursday morning at 8:30 saw us on our way to Jasper. We started off with a visit to Safeways to stock up on lunch. We also treated ourselves to Starbucks coffee and pastries for breakfast. Then we were off, driving out of town towards the railway station, then onto the Jasper road. We decided to take the scenic route so we shortly turned onto route 93a which winds it's way along the base of the mountains following the railway tracks for sometime. Although the weather was not great, quite misty, the beauty of the scenery is obvious. After a couple of stops, we reached Lake Louise. By this time, it was snowing quite heavily. Keith and Daria are staying here for their honeymoon. The place is spectacular. the lake is usually pictured as bright blue, but today, we saw it completely frozen and covered in snow, quite spectacular, I haven't seen a body of water as big as that frozen over before. Back on the road again the weather started to clear but was very changeable throughout the Journey. Wildlife spotting was paramount on the journey of course with a bear being the top target, but rather disappointingly we were nearly half way through the journey and had only seen a Mule Deer. We stopped for lunch on the banks of the Saskatchewan River, just before it is met by the Alexandra River, a really lovely spot. Carrying on, we entered the Jasper national park area and when given a choice of a back road to Jasper rather than the main road it was obvious what we would choose. Things started to pick up on the wildlife front soon afterwards. We spotted a Clark's Nutcracker and then, on a really nice lake, a male and female Barrow's Goldeneye, much to Keith's excitement. Meanwhile, Daria was getting some great pictures of a cheeky looking squirrel. On the next lake we saw two Loons . We travelled on, Daria spotting a solitary Bonaparte's Gull on a rock in the middle of the river, and eventually reached Jasper at about 15:30. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in Jasper. It's quite an ordinary looking town and quite small. We had a coffee and cake at the Bear Paw Cafe and a short walk around. We then decided to head back to Banff. we retraced our journey along the quiet road and were rewarded with the sight of the Loons again and a pair of Blue Winged Teal. Further on, we spotted a couple of White Tailed deer by the side of the road. We took a side trip of about 7 kilometers to Moab Lake but although it was a nice lake there was no life on ti at all. We travelled on with the light fading and then, after we had almost given up we spotted a Grizzly Bear foraging by the side of the road. We had a fantastic view, staying in the car and taking photos and video. The bear was very obliging, seeming unconcerned that we were there. Elated, we continued our journey, happy that we had finally seen a bear so close and a Grizzly to boot! The weather then took a real turn for the worse, heavy snow falls made visibility almost impossible and, as we approached Banff, we were at a crawl desperately trying to follow the white lines in order to stay on the road. Eventually, we reached Banff safely at around 22:00. We called in the off licence for a bottle of wine and managed to get Pizzas from the Italian restaurant in the Banff Inn, and went back to the "suite" in the Caribou to eat. Back to my hotel for about 23:30 after a great day out - 600 kilometers, about 16 hours travel and best of all a Grizzly sighting.