Our First Day in Jasper

If you are following us on a map, you know that we are not traveling very far before stopping for the night. It much more enjoyable to travel slowly and see the sights. On our way to Jasper, we had forgotten that we would pass Mt. Robson. On our last trip, it was cloudy and we didn't get to see the highest peak in Canada. Not so this trip! We spotted Mt. Robson long before we saw....

 ...the sign for the provincial park.  And yes, there was a geocache near the park sign.

We stopped at the visitor center for a quick break and a light lunch before continuing to Jasper.

Wapiti Campground was our choice for our stay at Jasper. We still had not had electric hook-ups since May 31st at White Horse! After getting set up, we decided we wanted to stay at Wapiti for more days than we originally registered so we went to registration and found that we would have to move. So we went back to the RV to move and UH-OH! The slide would not go in! Bob worked on it and I finally went to ask about RV repair places. There are none in Jasper---the closest is in Hinton about 40 miles away. The clerk recommended we try NAPA Auto Parts as they might know someone who could help us. Bob and I drove to NAPA and they sent us to the local towing company. The two guys at the towing company followed us to the RV and helped us get the slide in by manhandling it while I pressed to button to make it go in. What an experience! Needless to say, the slide WILL NOT come out the rest of this trip!

We were able to make our move to the new site and told registration we had finally moved so they assigned our old spot to someone else. WHEW!

The next morning it was hiking time! Bob and I chose Maligne Canyon. The young lady in Jasper NP Visitor Center told us it was one of two recommended day hikes in the area.  She was correct on this one. Maps were scarce because of the number of tourists in the area, so I took a picture of the main map at the kiosk. It came in handy for us and several others who couldn't get a map.

 Bob and I decided to walk the trail counter clockwise due to the number of people hiking that morning. We had the trail to ourselves all the way to Sixth Bridge.

 For the first part of our hike, we didn't see any of the slot canyon with Maligne (Evil) River running through it. We did see the river meandering toward town.

 On our return toward Fifth Bridge, we started seeing more flowing water and waterfalls everywhere!

 By the time we got to Third Bridge and Second Bridge, the water was thundering through the slot canyon.

 Pictures don't do the canyon justice. It is hard to look at these pictures and know just how deep the canyon has been cut by the river.

 The canyon is much narrower in some areas than in others. It boggles my mind to know that in winter you can walk along the canyon floor because the water freezes solid!

 After our hike, the weather turned rainy so we drove to Maligne Lake. The scenery was nice, but we didn't get out to take pictures. Once at the lake, we looked around the gift shop then ate our picnic lunch.

We sure were hoping the weather would clear up so we could have a good hiking day on Sunday.