Jasper to Banff

Wow! Wow! Wow! This was fabulous!

I always thought the west coast of the South Island in NZ was brilliant but this has been amazing today.

The Canadian Rockies section known as the Icefield Parkway was fabulous - the scenery really is stunning and this may be summer here but the area is in the middle of a heat-wave at present with the last 3 days being 34, 32, 31. We are staying at the beautiful Fairmont Hotels along the way none of which has air conditioning - it's usually not warm enough for anything other than heaters! Walked into this hotel this afternoon, had to ask the bell person if there was AC, or could we open a window or how do we get some air in? Consequently sitting here with a fan going now and one little window open but it will cool down very soon whent he sun goes down we are told.

As said, this is the middle of summer but the glaciers along the Canadian Rockies were awesome as was the whole rockies passage - I imagine the grand canyon in the USA would be of similar magnitude but probably even bigger!

Anyway asides from the fabulous scenery (we've been in a big 50 seater bus all day with no more than 16 people on board!) - have seen some great wildlife - white Canadian mountain goats grazing by the roadside - chipmunks everywhere! I want to bring some home, they are so cute!

Evevn found 2 bears grazing by the road this afternoon - the 'bear patrol' rangers are there in a flash to protect not only the bears from people, but mostly the people from the bears. There's always idiots around and people were getting out of their cars to take photos until they were told in no uncertain terms to 'get back in your car!!!" The sighting of bears on the main roads creates traffic jams they call 'bear jambs!' The minute one car stops at a sighting, everyone stops!

The Icefield Parkway main thoroughfare as it is known does not carry any commercial traffic - the whole are is covered in snow 6 months of the year and the road closed a lot. We were apparently very lucky today with what we have seen and the weather. Apparently there are only about 5 days a season when the Athabasca Glacier we went up onto, is on show in today's weather conditions so yes, we've had a great day.

Have not labelled all the photos - it's too time consuming sorry but you'll get the general idea!

Enjoy the pictures! All shown on the right side of this screed!

Anyway - now back in Vancouver after flying back from Calgary - had lunch, a haircut, Kemm sleeping - again!