Monday 17th April – Into Jasper National Park

Our camp site at Pines RV park - complete with.... I'm not sure... the head looks like a chicken but with the body of a flamingo?!

We checked out this morning with another four hours driving ahead until we were approaching Jasper and the colour of the rivers started looking like this:

 
We stopped off at Rearguard falls which mark the upper limit of the 800-mile migration of salmon from the Pacific Ocean (but they are only visible in the summer).

Rearguard Falls

Si and Stu getting precariously close to Rearguard Falls!

The goat is close... the mountain is far away

The next landmark that made us stop in our tracks was Mount Robson.  Even through the cloud it was clear that this was one of the mightiest mountains we had seen so far.

Mount Robson

Before we reached Jasper we crossed the border from British Columbia into Alberta, jumped forward one hour into mountain time and crossed the 20,000 mile mark all - in one day!

Jasper itself was a larger town than we expected, whilst still retaining a character feel. We bought some firewood and found the one open camp site with electric hook-ups nearby.   

After a brief walk to see the Athabasca river just behind us (above), the boys started the fire going – with free firewood, as we found a huge pile of it at the camp site.  Despite Simon and Stu’s efforts at building the largest, most roaringest (I'm not sure that's a word either) fire of the trip so far, we were the only campers braving the cold and eventually we were forced inside.  The fact was that the body parts nearest the almost-out-of-control blaze (usually your shins) felt like they were on fire, whilst the part of your body opposite the flames was chilled by a mountain whirlwind!  It took gallons of water to put out.. a great pyromaniac effort.