Banff and Jasper Provincial Parks in Alberta, Canada

Well -- it's been one week without any internet!! Luckily for us we are at an RV park in Prince George, British Columbia tonight where we have free wi-fi. We each had to catch up with a week of emails. And, before we leave tomorrow for Mile One of the Alaskan Highway in Dawson Creek, we are trying also to update this blog. Since we are already too far north, we have lost out DirecTV and our XM Satellite radio is about to disappear, too, in the next few miles.

But, the peace and quiet -- and the beautiful views from mountains with snow, valleys, lots of trees, water falls, pristine lakes, perfect climate in the Banff and Jasper Provincial Parks -- is priceless and definitely worth giving up the internet.

Banff, Alberta was everything we could have asked for and more. Stunning scenery, temperature in the 50s and 60sF (they use Centigrade here), and Dorothy (my sister from Minnesota) and her husband, David, joined us on May 22. We will be making this trip with them. Here you see Jerry grilling our first meal together after they arrived.
Dorothy and I spent the next day walking the town and visiting all the wonderful shops in Banff. Later that evening, we all decided to go out to eat at a local Italian restaurant. We spent two days in Banff before moving on to Lake Louise.

Lake Louise was somewhat disappointing to Dorothy and Dave who had seen it twenty years earlier. They remembered the clear turquoise water. Instead, Lake Louise was still somewhat frozen over. Jerry and I were impressed with it, though.



We spent Sunday night (May 24) in a Lake Louise. We were being warned about having to share the parks bears, moose and elk. Even so, Jerry and I decided to bike on the bike path for a bit. We also enjoyed ourselves just sitting by the running river reading our books. (See Jerry with his Cambria Coffee Roasting Company mocha and Chanti.) By the way, we travel with roasted whole beans from the Cambria Coffee Roasting Company which we grind each morning -- the best coffee anywhere!

We also saw the Athabasca Glacier in Columbia Ice Fields.

The one night we spent in Jasper, it rained. Jerry would start a fire, get it going quite nicely, then the rain would come and put it out. When the rain left a few minutes later, he did it again -- only to have the rain put out his fire again. The good thing was that the firewood was free.

Today, we drove for nearly six hours to get to Prince George. We are now back in Pacific time, so we gained an hour. The drive was full of scenic views and we even saw two bears and a large moose.

Since pictures tell a better story than our words, see the pictures below.

Thank you for following our blog. We will update it again when we get to the next wi-fi spot. Everyone stay healthy and enjoy your life.