June 12: Columbian Icefields

Stayed in the beautiful Wilcox Creek campground last night. The campground winds up a mountain, so that in such a way that one camper could not see the next….but there were lots of campers tucked in under the trees. No services, just a nice table next to the camper. For those folks geologically inclined, we were at –116 degrees 35’ 08” by 52 degrees, 28’ 22” and were at 6334 feet altitude. We drove 157 miles yesterday.
It was light last night at 11 pm. We seem to wake up around 5-6 am.
We left camp this morning at a little after 8 am; no big yank to get out, but we’re getting efficient at this breaking camp thing.

These first pictures are from Lake Louise. Awesome place! Our stop yesterday.

We're finally here! The sky isn't as blue....but the view remains awesome!
Drove a mile or so down the road from where we camped to the Columbia interpretive center and lodge. And there we saw a couple of campers that spent the night there….for free! If we had gone another mile, we could have saved $15! But with my luck a ranger would have come along and told us to move J.We decided not to go on the icecat ride to the Athabasca Glacier. It just drives up on the glacier, and you get out and walk around. Instead we walke up to the base of the glacier. A bit of a climb….but an awesome walk. Much nicer than an icecat ride. This is the Athabasca glacier....one of the many that make up the Columbia Icefield.
Spent a couple of hours there and then hit the road. On the way to the exit of Jasper National Park we have seen: two long horn sheep on the side of the hill (they were young because they only had 1/3rd curl on their horns), a black bear 5 foot from the road (no pic of him since we blew by him too fast), 3big horn sheep on the road; 2 cow elk feeding by the road; and a herd of young sheep frolicking on a hill right next to the road; they were practicing their head-butts and jumps!Now, we’re done w/ lunch and I’m going to try the old Holiday Inn parking-lot trick to post this….if it works, you’ll see it soon. The sun is shinning and it’s the most beautiful day since we left Iowa! 65 degrees!

Next time I post, I'll put in the animal wildlife pics; got all except the bear.

A lady in the Best Western here in Hilton, Alberta, just outside of Jasper, allowed me to use their internet for no cost! unheard of in the Banff and Jasper. This may be the last post for a couple of days. Now we're heading up toward Dawson Creek and the Alaskan highway.

Love you all.