Greetings all,
Today your weary travelers departed Hinton, AB, about 8:00 am headed for Jasper National Park, approximately 50 west of Hinton. The weather was good, about 65 degrees with mostly sunny skies. The traffic into the park was fairly heavy. This is a long weekend in Canada. Tomorrow, July 1st is Canada Day.
Approaching the park, we were confronted with a gate keeper collecting fees and a long single line of traffic. A few minutes later, a female employee came running down the line speaking to travelers. When she approached us she inquired as to our destination. I replied, "Kamloops." She directed us to a closed right lane and said to proceed, straight through, no fee collected. Cool!
Upon entering the park the scenery is awesome, beautiful blue/green lakes and majestic snowcapped mountains. Although the sky was beginning to cloud over it could not diminish the beauty and grandeur of Jasper National Park.
We had not been in the park for more than ten minutes before traffic stopped, which usually means someone has seen a wild animal. Today was no exception. We saw a lone Ram standing right next to the roadway. We stopped for some quick pictures. Just a few miles farther down the road we saw an adult male Elk grazing right next to the highway. We, along with several other tourists, stopped for more pictures.
A few minutes later we pulled into the village of Jasper proper. Jasper is a quaint little village with many original shops and a few everyday standards, including Subway. But, I have to tell you, as beautiful as Jasper is, I'm a little disappointed. In comparison to nearby Lake Louise and Banff, it just doesn't measure up. It’s very nice, but not uniquely spectacular.
As we departed the park the partially cloudy sky turned to low clouds and rain, the temperature dropped to about 54 degrees and it rained steadily for the next 150 miles to Kamloops, BC.
For the first time in four years of riding in rain wearing my Tourmaster Transition II waterproof textile jacket it let me down. I thought I must have left my left sleeve air vent open from a previous warm day and stopped to close it. However, I found that the vent was closed but my entire left arm was soaked. It's still a mystery.
After enduring the foul weather for the past three hours, the rain finally subsided as we rolled into our destination for the evening, Kamloops, BC. We checked into our hotel and walked to the local pub for supper.
We're going to try to get an early start tomorrow for Olympia, Washington, where we'll load the bikes on the trailer and drive home to Santa Clarita, CA, concluding our Alaska and Canada riding adventure. Upon pulling into Kamloops, we put our 5,000th mile on the motorcycles since leaving Olympia three weeks ago. As good as it is to get home, it's always a little sad to conclude a great riding adventure.
Here are a few photos, as much as the rain would allow:
No comments:
Post a Comment