Elk Island National Park

From Edmonton we traveled about an hour east to stay at Elk Island. It's a flat area with plains and marshes and a few trees. Great habitat for ducks, geese, beaver, muskrat, elk and bison.
It was a nice day so we went on a couple of hikes looking for wildlife but only saw ducks and geese. Upon our return however, a large bison stood on the road to the campsite. We snapped a few pics and went down to the beach in the evening. We hung out at the campsite around the fire then turned in at dark.


The kids were a bit worried that a bison would come into our campsite but I told them that they would never get that close to our tents. There were many wild sounds of birds and howling coyotes to soothe us to sleep. Nat ended up sleeping in the kid's tent and I awoke around 5am to clomp, clomp, munch, munch. I sat up and listened for a few minutes clomp, clomp, munch, munch then I was convinced what it was. I peeked out the tent to see a large male bison about 20 feet from our tents. He was grazing and apparently unconcerned of our presence. I snuck over to the kid's tent and woke then up to take a look. Their eyes bulged out as they watch him make his way through our site. What a way to start the day!
We did go back to sleep then got up and packed up. We headed back to Edmonton to see Nat's cousin Justin.

Jasper to Edmonton

Thursday, we decided to split up - with the boys going fishing and the girls going sightseeing. Tom and Alex headed to Moab Lake, where they rented a rowboat and spent the afternoon and early evening fishing. They each caught 4 fish, 7 rainbow and 1 brook trout. Alex brought 2 of his fish home for dinner. They were delicious!

Kathleen and I took the Jasper tramway to the top of Whistlers mountain, to 2277m above sea level. The view was pretty spectacular. We sat in the restaurant at the top for quite awhile, just enjoying the mountain ranges. Back at the campsite, we had a fire and a few rounds of tarp ball .


The next morning we packed up and left the campsite and headed to the Miette Hot Springs. The water comes off the mountain at 54 degrees celcius and they cool it to 40 degrees for the hot pools. They also have a couple of cold pools - one at 10 degrees celcius. Nice spot!


After the Hot Springs, we pushed on to Edmonton. We hit the West Edmonton Mall and then found a motel for the night.
Today we are heading to Elk Island National Park, which is about 1 hour East of Edmonton. We are hoping to see some Bison.

The Icefields Parkway - Banff to Jasper

We left Banff for Jasper on Tuesday the 24th at about 10:30am. We stopped to see the magnificent green hued Lake Louise but we arrived and found most of the lake frozen. It was nice nonetheless. We enjoyed a scenic drive along the highway called the Icefields Parkway. Wed stopped many times to snap some pics and take in the views. We saw two black bears and several elk along the way. The glaciers were impressive especially the Columbia Icefields. We are in the town of Jasper now doing laundry and checking out the shops. It's Alex's birthday - he's 11 today- so we are eating out tonight. He got a dream catcher, a Canadian Rockies wildlife book and a totem pole and the rest of the presents are coming when we hit the West Edmonton Mall.
I have tried to scout out the fishing possibilities here but have not decided where to go yet. The best fishing lake, Maligne Lake, is still ice!

Whistler to Banff

We drove through Pemberton, a lush farming valley, into Lillooet, a suprisingly desert like area. It looked like Montana or Nevada. Scrub trees and sage bushes alongside mountains. We continued to Kamloops only to discover that all the provincial campsites were full due to the May long weekend. We thought we would drive until we found a motel but we spotted a private campsite with a few tent sites near Salmon Arm. We pulled in and got a site at about 8 pm. After supper we turned in for some needed rest but the trains across the highway kept us from doing so.
We pulled out early in the morning and drove through Revelstoke, Glacier and Yoho National Parks. We stopped several times to take in the fantastic scenery. The drive was the most beautiful part we have seen so far and will be tough to beat. Huge mountains and valleys all the way.
We stopped near Golden to visit a Wolf wildlife center. They had 7 wolves and they gave a great talk about how important they are to the ecosystem. It was the school work of the day. They are trying to save the wolves and bears in the area to bring back the natural balance.

We continued on to Banff and pitched our tent at Tunnel Mountain Village. The campsites were very busy until today (Monday). We have hiked three trails the last one being at Johnson's Canyon. It had two nice waterfalls and a few surprises...On the way back down the canyon Alex and I led the way and Nat and Kathleen were back a few hundred yards. The couple right in front of them pointed in the woods so they hurried up to them to catch a look at some wildlife. They were surprised to see a huge Grizzly lumber onto the trail. They turned and started walking back in the other direction, met up with a couple of other hikers and waited until the couple called the coast to be clear. In a group of 8 they continued, making lots of noise to ward off the bear. However 200m up the trail, the bear decided to come back up onto the trail again, this sent panic into a few people ahead of them who started running (what we are not to do!) Someone organized them to form a big group and wait for the bear to head back into the woods.

We are now in town and plan on starting to venture towards Jasper tomorrow.

Whistler part 2

We enjoyed Jeff's hospitality so much that we had stay a few more days. The weather turned nice on Tuesday so Nat and Kathleen went up Blackcomb to sightsee and Alex and Jeff went skiing again. I stayed back and hauled Jeff's Chestnut canoe to a small lake at the base of Blackcomb called Lost Lake. I managed to hook into to several rainbow trout but lost most of them-they were a bit on the small side. We all met back at Jeff's for supper then had a quick game of football at the park. The adults stayed up late reminiscing and debating as the beer that was supposed to last for a few days disappeared rather quickly. We met a younger couple from across the street and had a few with them before we turned in.
The next morning Jeff and Alex went skiing again. Alex has now skied a total of 4 times with 3 of them at Blackcomb - a nice place to learn! Jeff said he improved tremendously and they went down many black diamonds and one double black. Nat and I hit Lost Lake in the canoe for a relaxing paddle in the sunshine and Kathleen "chillaxed" at Jeff's.
The next morning we ate breakfast then played one more game of football. Jeff, Alex and Kathleen beat Nat and I - we let them win. We set off East after saying goodbye to Jeff. Thanks Jeff for all you did - hopefully we'll do it again soon.

Whistler

We arrived in Whistler on Thursday the 12th to stay with Jeff Leavitt (Nat's brother). He actually lives on Easy St. with a view of Whistler-Blackcomb. We woke to sunshine Friday morning so we hit the mountain (Blackcomb) for some spring skiing. Kathleen decided to stay back and watch Leo, a dog that Jeff in taking care of. Blackcomb is the only ski hill open in North America at this time of year and we took full zadvantage. We skied from 11am until it closed at 4pm. It was spectacular and we had sun burns to prove it!.

We toured the town and area Saturday then hit Alta Lake in the canoe to try our luck fishing. I got my first ever cutthroat and rainbow trouts and Alex caught a rainbow as wellIt has been raining fairly steady since Friday but we are still hiking around. We tried the stream behind Jeff's place but no luck then we hiked up a ravine with high cliffs and drove around some huge, expensive houses owned by people like Sarah MacLaughlin.



We had a great steak supper last night as we watched the Canucks win then we jumped into Jeff's wood fired hot tub- a nice way to end the day.

It has rained all day today (Monday) so we are making the kids do some math homework then planning on going to a movie later on. The weather report looks good later this week so we plan on staying a few more days. Alex has enjoyed helping Jeff with the 16 chicks he is keeping.

Tofino

We left Comox for Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. We stopped at Coombs "goats on the roof" market on the way and found only grass on the roof at this time of year. Nice market though. We arrived in Tofino in the rain and set up the tarp and tents in the Bella Pacifica campground on Mackenzie Beach. We turned in early expecting a nice day to follow. We got that day as we arose to sun. We did some beachcombing and found sand dollars and a big starfish. We went in to town for some supplies. It is quite a tourist destination that is well known for it's surfing and fishing. We dropped into the flyfishing shop and I had a great conversation with the owner and he told us a spot where we might get into some sea run cutthroat trout. He gave Alex a nice fly and wished us luck. We then went to the surfer's beach and watched the action for a while then Nat and Kathleen went to play on the beach and Alex and I headed to Grice Bay to try our luck. We saw a seal and one big trout but didn't hook up. Back at the campsite we capped the night off with some smores after Alex and I scrounged the campsite for wood that others left behind ( I'm not paying $6 for three sticks of wood!). We left in the morning taking down the camp in the pouring rain. We drove to Nanaimo and boarded the ferry to Horsehoe Bay (Vancouver) then made our way north on the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler.