Day 10 April 29th Lake Louise to Jasper

 

 



cloudy, drizzly Lake Louise

Today was the first day of our 

our coach with snow falling

holiday when we did not have clear blue skies when we woke up.  It was cloudy with sleet/drizzle and so looked very different from our room window.  We were booked on the trip leaving the hotel at 0930 and so we had breakfast and packed by then.  The intention was to stop at several sight seeing spots 

the snow made the pines true Christmas trees

on the way to Jasper where we 

North Saskatchewan River

would arrive by1730.  The show must go on and our driver/guide took us through the passes and river bed led routes to several viewpoints where we stopped and admired the mist 

Another frozen waterfall

and valleys but could not see the peaks.  The snow did make the endless pine 

the Athabasca glacier

trees seem more attractive.  The lakes we passed were all frozen as were climbing steadily during the day.  We eventually arrived for lunch at the Athabasca ice fields/glacier centre which we had visited before.  the food was awful at the 

us on the glacier

visitor centre and the trip to the glacier held nothing special for us with our trip to Fox Glacier in New Zealand being far superior in that there you actually were allowed to walk on proper glacier ice. (See our 2013 and 2014 blogs). 

When  we left the glacier we 

grizzly bear

experienced our highlight of the day because along the side of the road was a large grizzly bear who stopped for a time and took no notice of us before slowly ambling off.  He seemed to perform for us and I include a video of some of the time.  

osprey

One of our love to see moments for this trip was thus achieved.  We carried on and then saw an osprey sitting above its nest and 

elk grazing as train passes

then just before we reached our hotel a group of elk were grazing.

The friendly bear

We have now settled into this log-cabin styled hotel and having eaten are preparing to retire before looking forward to tomorrow's adventures.  Today will be a hard act to follow.

 The waterfalls on the Athabasca River