Mountains all around

7th , 8th July 2008 TADASANA – THE MOUNTAIN POSE

After much discussion and consultation the final decision was that we would NOT tow the trailer along the Icefield Parkway, “the most beautiful road in the world… 230 kms of continuous World Heritage Site scenery completely protected in 2 national parks” (Banff and Jasper). Instead we would rather travel from Rocky north back to the Yellowhead Highway and then west through Hinton to Jasper.
We spent 2 nights in a KOA campground in Hinton and enjoyed the luxury of “full hookup” and pristine shower facilities, and wireless internet, after our time in the provincial park. From here we did an exploratory trip into Jasper, and a short hike which took us along the wide and fast flowing Athabasca River.

From Hinton it’s an hour or so to the town of Jasper.
This is a real hubbub of a tourist town in the Jasper National Park and we found a spot in the Whistlers campground on the outskirts, where we spent 3 nights. Eric cleverly found a neat book by Kathy and Craig Copeland. It’s one of their “done in a day” series, called “Jasper – The 10 Premier Hikes”. A call to Al confirmed that this was a good find and so with confidence we planned to DO SOME HIKING!! Yay!!

On the first afternoon having settled into our campsite, we sat having lunch in the trailer, as it clouded over, grew grey and dismal and rainy. Ignoring all the signs of weather we set off as planned, to the Sulphur Skyline trailhead with book in hand. As we drove, low and behold the clouds blew somewhere else and the sun came out. To reach the trailhead we headed up a long mountainous road to the parking lot of the Miette Hot Springs where swimming pools have been established. This trail is a VERY steep one with an elevation gain of 636 m. We climbed through forest for about an hour then it opened out a bit and we were able to get a clear view of the skyline. The final stretch was tricky climbing, up a rough scree slope with the wind blowing hard and the lungs blowing hard too. At the top there was an amazing 360degree view of mountains in all directions. Eric is always looking for the “big picture” and this was it. There is something really awesome for me (in the fullest sense of the word) about witnessing that enormity and expansiveness opening out before me. My first impulse has been to want to start down almost immediately, but today Eric and I sat for a while with the wind tugging strongly at us and we attempted to take in the subtle variations of colour and shape, in those extraordinary geological features.
I was also moved by the beauty and abundance of the wild flowers. On the lower slopes they were robust and tall. As we climbed higher they became smaller till by the time we were above the tree line before us was a colourful mass of flowering heather. Over the next 3 days I took a photo of each different kind of flower I saw. The winter project will be identifying them.
It took us 3 hours to go up and 1 hour to come down.
From there we went and soaked in the hot pools, the perfect antidote to tired muscles.
By then I’d forgiven the town for being so touristy and we had a delicious dinner at Andy’s Bistro to celebrate and an excellent day and our 36th anniversary.