Back Southward

The next morning we woke up to sunshine. We were also spared from any additional elk parades :-)


While Quent & Christina ran some errands, Pat & I wandered a bit around the town of Jasper.


We came upon a sight also familiar in Duluth. Well, the CN part, at least.

The steam engine was pretty neat.

The Jasper Information Centre building, constructed in 1914, is apparently an architectural marvel for the town. It was the first major structure at the townsite, and its rustic style architecture created using local materials was supposedly the basis for the architectural style for the rest of the town. The building originally housed the park administration offices on the main floor, a museum, library, and drafting room on the second floor, and a fish hatchery in the basement. Busy place!

Unfortunately we reached a point when we had to turn around to head back southward. Just outside jasper, we had views of foggy mountains.

I kept seeing signs warning of sheep on which the French version read 'mouflon.' In French class, I had learned sheep was 'mouton.' Thoroughly confused, I looked it up after our trip and found that mouflon means wild sheep. Ah.

On the way back south, we drove through Kootenay National Park. The sky backdrop behind the mountains really was that blue.

Although not as spectacular as the mountains in Banff, the mountains in Kootenay did not disappoint, either.

The rivers at the bases of the mountains looked like ribbons of blue.

At the exit point from Kootenay near Radium, British Columbia, we passed through a narrow rock cut. No sign of anyone glowing....

Columbia Lake along the Kootenay River offered nice views. Unfortunately we didn't really have time to enjoy them since we needed to stay on schedule for the return to Kalispell. We setup camp just north of the US border and hit the sack.