McBride BC to Jasper NP, AB 120 miles, Sept 16, 2010

We stayed in McBride yesterday and listened to the gentle rain most of the day – nice relaxing day.

We had a nice sunny day for our drive to Jasper, and one small section of bridge construction. What would you think about when crossing a temporary bridge if you weighed 33,000 pounds?

Beautiful view of Mount Robson, 12,972 feet,the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies and we are not in Jasper yet.

Right along Rt 16 is the west entrance to Jasper NP, if you are just passing through Jasper, then you do not pay the daily use fee. We believe our minimum days in Jasper and Banff will be four days, so that is what we paid for. Even though technically I am not a Senior in Canada, the entrance ranger gave me the discount, so for four days we paid $66.40 ($8.30 each x 4 days + GST tax). We were reminded that if we end up staying more than a week, then a National Park Pass is a better deal and the amount we have already paid can be applied to the pass purchase.

Our next stop is to find a diesel station, well, that turned into more than a chapter. All the stations in town were on the other side of a divided main road, so we ended going through town and then out of town, got on a road heading up to some falls. By this time Bob is becoming more and more vocal, “this is not good, this is really not good”. We needed to find a place to turn around, all 55’ of us. Finally came to a turn off where we unhooked the Explorer and Bob made a beautiful two point turn and we were heading back to town. This time the fuel stations were on the correct side.

Since we did not hook the Explorer back up, I was able to follow and take a photo of the Coach heading back into Jasper.

I pulled in behind Bob as he pulled into this station and filled our tank 268.493 liters (70.86 gal) at .949/L, the cheapest we have paid in Canada.

Now off to the RV park, Whistlers, to get a spot for a couple of nights. This sign greeted us at the campground entrance. So I went up to get one of their non hookup sites as the other sights were full. It was then, I was told we could park at the overflow electric area at a nearby campground, Wapiti ($32.30/night). Now with the night temps dipping near freezing, of course, I said sure, that would be great!

After settling into our site, also to our amazement we were able to connect with the satellite for internet. We then headed back into Jasper to check out the visitor center to find out what we will be doing tomorrow. Loved that they use small pine cones for mulch.

In town I found a few new friends!

Tomorrow we have several things we want to see or do: Ride the Tramway, See Athabasca Falls, and Hike in Maligne Canyon. Time will tell if we get to all of them.