Jasper

After the service in Hinton, we travelled west up the Yellowhead Highway through the mountains into Jasper National Park, and stayed the night at the town of Jasper.  It was a perfect day, as was the next morning, and we saw lots of spectacular mountains scenery.

Jaxson never really knew his Uncle Will, except through the generous and mysterious big Christmas gifts that would arrive.  Nor had his dad been in the mountains here at all, though the rest of us have, several times.  So giving Jaxson and chance to see the mountains, and getting some pictures, will be one way to help him remember.

The Rocky Mountains here start immediately west of Hinton, so it makes a beautiful hour-long drive to get to Jasper.  Lots of Mountain Sheep along the road too.

And the train tracks follow the highway through the pass, as does the Athabasca River.  The noise of the trains is one of the big memories we have of our time camping in the Rockies 25 years ago.  (And as you can tell, some of these pictures are taken through the window of a moving car).

I wish I had an easy way to tell what mountains each of these are, but I don't.  Still, it all makes for great scenery.

Jasper itself is surrounded by mountains.  I think the little bump on top of the mountain just left of centre in this picture is the top of the new Jasper Tramway which you  can ride to the top.  It didn't exist when we were last here.

And I was surprised to realize that Jasper still has passenger service on Via Rail, along with an large old train station on the main street.  There are only 3 passes in the Rockies for train lines, and a main road and railway go through each of these - Crowsnest in the south, Kicking Horse near Banff, and the Yellowhead Pass here.

There even had a nice old locomotive here for you to see.  And note the tall fences around each individual tree - put there to keep the Elk from nibbling the bark, right on the main street!

Some mountain peaks are obviously taller than others, and still had lots of ice and snow; in places you could make out small glaciers.

The next morning we headed back down the highway for a long drive to Edmonton and another flight.  But we stopped several times while still in Jasper National Park, and enjoyed the scenery.

It all just added to our memory of the trip, which will of course stay with us forever.