I sent last message before leaving Wells Gray PP. Now, we are in Hinton, Alberta and we have spent three nice days in Jasper NP.
When we were going to Jasper we stopped at Mt.Robson PP. It was still in British Columbia. Mt.Robson is really a monumental mountain, a giant massif of granite rising from the ground. But we were unlucky because we saw just a half of the mountain, a rest was hidden in the mist. When we arrived to the town of Jasper the weather wasn't so good. It was sometimes raining. We went to IC for some information about trails. We asked about some two-day trail but a woman wasn't really friendly, she told us to go to another table and when we had been waiting there and nobody had come she came to us and gave us a really good advice. She pointed one trail and it was everything. Such a big difference considering Banff. Once we were done in IC we went to the Whistlers Campground which is a huge campground 2km from the town of Jasper. And as usually in national parks it wasn't equipped enough. There were almost 800 sites but just 6 six showers, no internet and toilets 100m from our site. All campground in national parks are operated by national park organisations and all are not good. Every private campground we have visited was far better than them.
Next day, we decided to hike up to Whistlers Mountain. The beginning of the trail was close to our camp. There was also an airtram which takes you 1km under the peak but it's for pensioners and weak people (and by the way it was expensive). I had to hike it up. An information desk recommended 3-5 hours but we did it in 2 hours and 15 minutes. When we reached the end of the airtram the temperature went down very quickly. Suddenly, I couldn't have bended my fingers. On the house where the airtram ended, there was posted the temperature at noon. And it was just 2C! I had just shorts, termoshirt and summer jacket. But we continued to the peak. When we got there it was windy and cold but a view was incredible, propably the best view we have seen since the beginning of your journey. The snow was there, too. A new snow. The winter came sooner than we had expected. We planned one two-day trail with sleeping at elevation 2300m but we had to cancel it because it snowed there! And we are not equipped enough for this conditions.
Wednesday was a lazy day. We just walked around the town of Jasper and I was checking the football match between Slavia Prague and Ajax on my cell phone. Then we just made a small trip to a close lake but we were too lazy to do someting. When we were going back to the campground we stopped at Liquer store to buy some beers because Slavia defeated Ajax and got to Champions league. After we had arrived to the camp we made a small barbecue with sausages and beers. There were several Czech beers in the liquer store, even Lobkowitz or Litovel (for non-Czechs: small breweries in the Czech republic). This barbecue was the best meal since we arrived to Canada and propably since we arrived to the USA this year.
When we arrived to Jasper temperatures during nights were about zero then they went up. Last night was really "hot", about 8C. But I have had some problems with back because the sleeping in the tent is not really comfortable and we have slept in the tent almost for three weeks. That's why I have bad sleeping now.
Today, we decided to make a small hike in Maligne lake area. It sounded interesting because Maligne Lake is the second biggest glacier lake in the world. Trail was 8km long with almost 500m elevation gain. But we were disappointed a bit because we couldn't have seen the lake during the trail. Instead of it, we met a lot of German tourists. They are everywhere 🙂 Anyway, today was really nice day with a great weather. We were sad a bit when we had to leave Jasper because it's propably the most beautiful park we have ever visited in Canada and North America. We have to head to Edmonton. That's why we left Jasper and now we are in KOA campground in Hinton, 280km from Edmonton.
And by the way: when we were on Whistlers Mountain we met Czech who's lived in Canada for 38 years so we were given some interesting information by him.