We picked our hire car at 9am on a - yes you guessed it - another perfect day. So we decided to kick off our Jasper stay with a trip up the Jasper Tramway
The little building at centre is the top of the Tramway. It is a 1.2km hike to the peak of Whistlers Mountain. The town of Jasper is below and the valley in the distance has the main rail and road links to Edmonton to the east
This is looking west towards the way we came to Jasper. This valley has the rail and road links west. The snow capped peak in centre is Mt Robson - the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. It is not often seen from here!
Looking south along the Icefields Parkway. Mt Edith Cavell is the high peak at right. It is one of the iconic peaks of Jasper. The road to here is closed due to a recent icefall into a lake and subsequent flooding
Mt Edith Cavell as close as you can view it right now
The conquerors of the icy heights
We took a quick 50km drive down to Mt Robson to see it on a clear day
Next day we headed the opposite direction to Maligne Lake. On our very first scenic viewpoint, we saw an (I think) elk an calf just hanging around the rock barrier
Maligne Lake is fairly touristy. Boat rides - canoe hire etc
Still we were walking across a bridge nearby and Irene spotted a deer coming out of the bush just near us. It started walking away towards the point. It is just visible in front of a bush centre right
I wished it to walk out into the water - to give me a silhoutte and reflection shot
After leaving Maligne Lake we gate-crashed 1 other car who had just spotted a bear. The chick in the passenger side had her camera out the window - and the bear was just there. This was my best from the other side of the road
Bit further along past Medicine Lake, we saw our first Bighorn Sheep. They pretty much wander along and hold up traffic if they want to
This is a youngish male. The older Bighorns get the bigger curved horns
All the water leaving Maligne Lake eventually comes through the Maligne Canyon. Very hard to photograph - it is VERY deep and awesome - and popular. There were heaps of people here
We called back in to the viewpoint where we saw the mother and baby elk??
Back on the main Jasper, Edmonton highway. The bighorn sheep don't care. They just hold up the traffic if they want. We haven't seen any roadkill anywhere yet either!!
Bighorns to the north of the highway
And bighorns to the south of the highway
