Back from a winter getaway
Over the weekend, Bonnie and I took a quick trip up to Jasper. For those unfamiliar with the area (I'm assuming most of you), here's a map!
View Larger Map
The road up is called the Icefields Parkway and, I'm told, is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Unfortunately for us, it snowed the entire drive both ways so, we didn't see that much. However, the drive was still beautiful. It's a small, 2-lane highway that travels along - and across - the continental divide. It's an amazing road through mountain valleys and across peaks (reaches as high as 7,000ft), and even across the tip of a Glacier at the Columbia Icefield (hence the name). The pictures don't begin to do it justice, what with the weather conditions and being taken from a car, but I'll post a few anyway.
The average look of the highway. If it didn't look like this, it looked the same but with tighter trees and/or mountains
At the Columbia Icefield. Weather conditions just like we were on top of a mountain (oh wait, we were) - windy, cold, windy, windy, and formidable
One of many. We even saw a couple people climbing a couple of them. Looked fun! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_climbing
And finally, who wants to go camping?
My good friend Dave works at the Fairmont (Banff Springs) here in Banff, and he hooked us up with a room at the Jasper Park Lodge. It was something of a mix between some kind of kids camp and a ranch resort. Single main lodge with a whole bunch of surrounding buildings, each with a couple hotel rooms (and a bunch of cabins for rent for families and groups or extremely rich people). We had a room not too far from the main lodge. Nothing too fancy, just a nice hotel room.
Most of the trip was spent relaxing. They had a great lounge with a huge picture window out into valley and a large, roaring, real-wood fireplace. We spent a long time in here playing cards, board games, and, of course, drinking cocktails.
And here's Bonnie standing on the deck just outside the window
What time we didn't spend in the bar, we spent walking around the town (which is MUCH smaller and quieter than Banff, largely due to the fact that it is 4 hours from the nearest 'real' city or airport), or enjoying other amenities at the resort:
Ice Skating:
Outdoor Pool (yes we actually swam. this sign is just pretty funny, we thought)
As we were leaving, we learned that you can also rent some snowshoes, which we would have loved to do but learned too late. Next time, I guess.
And for some final shot at breathtaking scenery (which this blog NEVER shows :p), here are some pictures of Athabasca Falls in Jasper. We made a brief stop on the trip home.
View Larger Map
The road up is called the Icefields Parkway and, I'm told, is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Unfortunately for us, it snowed the entire drive both ways so, we didn't see that much. However, the drive was still beautiful. It's a small, 2-lane highway that travels along - and across - the continental divide. It's an amazing road through mountain valleys and across peaks (reaches as high as 7,000ft), and even across the tip of a Glacier at the Columbia Icefield (hence the name). The pictures don't begin to do it justice, what with the weather conditions and being taken from a car, but I'll post a few anyway.
The average look of the highway. If it didn't look like this, it looked the same but with tighter trees and/or mountains
At the Columbia Icefield. Weather conditions just like we were on top of a mountain (oh wait, we were) - windy, cold, windy, windy, and formidable
One of many. We even saw a couple people climbing a couple of them. Looked fun! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_climbing
And finally, who wants to go camping?
My good friend Dave works at the Fairmont (Banff Springs) here in Banff, and he hooked us up with a room at the Jasper Park Lodge. It was something of a mix between some kind of kids camp and a ranch resort. Single main lodge with a whole bunch of surrounding buildings, each with a couple hotel rooms (and a bunch of cabins for rent for families and groups or extremely rich people). We had a room not too far from the main lodge. Nothing too fancy, just a nice hotel room.
Most of the trip was spent relaxing. They had a great lounge with a huge picture window out into valley and a large, roaring, real-wood fireplace. We spent a long time in here playing cards, board games, and, of course, drinking cocktails.
And here's Bonnie standing on the deck just outside the window
What time we didn't spend in the bar, we spent walking around the town (which is MUCH smaller and quieter than Banff, largely due to the fact that it is 4 hours from the nearest 'real' city or airport), or enjoying other amenities at the resort:
Ice Skating:
Outdoor Pool (yes we actually swam. this sign is just pretty funny, we thought)
As we were leaving, we learned that you can also rent some snowshoes, which we would have loved to do but learned too late. Next time, I guess.
And for some final shot at breathtaking scenery (which this blog NEVER shows :p), here are some pictures of Athabasca Falls in Jasper. We made a brief stop on the trip home.
posted by Anonymous at 12:59 PM
1 Comments:
Wow Noah, just beautiful. The drive looked kind of iffy though. But Jasper and surrounding area looks beautiful. Hope I get to see it someday. Thanks for the news.
love
mom
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