ALBERTA continued - plenty of snow round here!

Edmonton - We had a delightful time in Edmonton with Joy & Lew, starting our visit there with a drive to Elk Lake Provincial Park, it was snowy & cold but what a beautiful place.  We found a picnic shelter with a fireplace & enjoy a cuppa & muffins, watching the little birds outside in the snow.  The park is famous for its bison & elk, unfortunately we didn't have any luck finding any but nevertheless enjoyed our day out.

Joy & the picnic area at Elk Lake, the car is over there in the carpark

Our trip into the city by bus was fun & we got off right in the centre of the city at the corner of 100 Avenue (Jasper Avenue) & 100 Street. We popped round the corner to the tourist information office where we got maps & some advice before heading off on a walk round the city centre.  We went to City Hall, lovely building with a full glass front wall for light & solar heating, it also looks out over Churchill Square. The Alberta Art Gallery was just across the road, fabulous sleek building, unfortunately closed on Mondays & we didn't really get a chance to get back.

Edmonton Art Gallery

We walked a bit under the city using the Pedway, a system of passageways/corridors that connect buildings through the downdown area making it possible to get almost anywhere without going out into the winter weather.

Part of the Pedway, this bit went through
an underground car park, complete with
pedestrian crossing

A bus trip along Jasper Avenue took us to the Royal Alberta Museum (well it would have if we hadn't mistakenly caught an express bus & ended up at Edmonton Mall, caught another bus back though without any problems).

Big-horned sheep display at the museum

This was fantastic, there are four display areas but we only had time to see two of them. The Wild Alberta Gallery which was full of stuffed animals in natural setting & there was a short film on forest fires, as well as other fun interactive things to do.  The other gallery we went to was the Gallery of Aboriginal Culture, absolutely fascinating, original clothing, tools & weapons, oral histories, short films & loads of other interesting stuff.

Just like you see in the movies

We visited the Alberta Legislature Building, they run free tours on the hour all day, so naturally anything free is worth a look.  It turned out to be a great visit, the guide was delghtful & we even had our photo taken with the Sergeant at Arms as he held the Provincial Mace just before he began the official procession to open the parliament for the day.  It is certainly a beautiful building, marble, waterfalls, statues & just to make it sound really good there was a carillon too. 

Inside the main foyer of the Legislature Building



Us with the Sergeant at Arms & the Provincial Mace

West Edmonton Mall was an eye-popper, it is so huge you need a couple of days just to look round the shops & to get your bearings.  It is easy to see how & why people go there for a holiday from the cold winter weather.  Cinemas, IMAX theatre, casino, ropes course, putt-putt golf, sea lion shows, wave pool just to list a few of the undercover activities that can be enjoyed.  Joy & Lew drove us there & we had lunch at one of the dozens of restaurants in Bourbon Street (the food area), they have been many a time in the past so they went home after lunch & we returned home by public transport.



The wave pool & water slides inside West Edmonton Mall, great way to escape the winter outside

On Saturday's there is a local farmers' market at old Strathcona just south of the city centre.  The markets were very good, lots of free samples so luckily we were hungry, organic foods, food stalls & hand-made goods.  It was St Partick's Day so of course everything was green too.  Even the buskers were playing irish tunes.

Indoor Farmers' Market, you need it in this climate, busy as always

A short block away is Whyte Avenue, the old centre of the city of Strathcona which amalgamated with Edmonton in 1912 to form one city.  The street is full of trendy boutiques, organic food shops, irish pubs all set in historic buildings.  We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant in the old post office & enjoyed a bit of window-shopping plus the added bonus of people watching as the funny costumes & party people dressed up in green of course, started to arrive for the evening's festivities.  The pubs were full by noon but by about 3pm they were overflowing onto the footpaths. 

The original Strathcona Fire Hall

It was so lovely to be able to spend time with family, we met some of the extended family at birthday celebrations & spend time with Jen, Scott, Catherine & Meghan.  We went with Joy & Lew to see the girls skate in their end of year performance, it was amazing to see even the tiniest of children managing to stay upright on the ice.  Naturally Catherine was the epitome of grace & her routine was very good, Meg still being quite young performed as part of a group, but she skated very well & seemed to really enjoy herself.

Happy 11th Birthday Catherine!



Meghan's end of year skating photo

A great big thank you to Jenelle & Scott for the gift of tickets to an ice hockey game.  Joy gave us a lift to Century Plaza, the southern most end of the Light Rail, we & heaps of other fans all done up in their blue & orange team colours caught the train to Rexall Place (the ice hockey arena).  There was quite a crowd but it was manageable & we found our seats with some help from the host (each set of seating has a staff member to help with any issues). We had great seats & a really nice man next to us who helped us understand the rules. 

A night out on the town! Watching the Zamboni resurface the ice

Unfortunately the Edmonton Oilers lost after extra time & a penalty shoot out to the Phoenix Coyotes.  Bonus for the night was that Grant won a team cap, he was sitting in one of the 'lucky seats'.

Despite Lew not being in the best of health he kindly took us for a drive & picnic in the area where he grew up, which isn't far out of the city on the north-west side.  It was a lovely trip, we saw his family home, school, one of Joy & Lew's homes was there too.  We also drove to a lovely spot, Lake Wabamun which of course was still frozen over but it was easy to see how wonderful the area would be in the summer, a real hive of activity.  There were picnic areas, children's playgrounds, empty marinas which would be full of boats in the summer & even a thrift shop - handy since Joy & I both needed bits & pieces there.



This little boat didn't make it out of the water
before it froze over



Lew showing off his balancing skills as we picnic in the car during a snow storm

It started snowing so an outdoor picnic was off the books, needless to say we had chicken & salad in the car.  Usually it is flies that keeps us in a car but this is the first time snow has stopped us from eating out of doors.

Before I leave the blog about Edmonton I really have to say how wonderful Joy & Lew were to us, they opened their hearts & their home, making us feel very welcome & part of the family.  A big THANK YOU!

JASPER - a little piece of paradise in the snow!

Heading west from Edmonton for a few days we stopped off at Hinton for our first night on the road.  Throwing caution to the wind we drove to a fire lookout, reportedly having a panoramic view of the Rockies only to find the road was closed & that the snow drifts were 2 metres deep.

Scary, scary driving conditions, nowhere to turn round & no grip either

After a bit of manoeuvring on the treacherous road we went back towards town.  We had been told about the lovely view from the hillside above the village of Brule so following the 'local' directions we found not only the view across the valley, the lake & the village but the unofficial pet cemetery on the slope too.  The wind was bitingly cold here so it turned out to be a short visit to the escarpment.

Panorama from the escarpment

In Hinton itself there is a Beaver Walk, a boardwalk round the lake with information boards & viewing areas where in the summer you can watch the beavers at work.  Naturally there wasn't much activity at this time of year but we could clearly see the dam & the pile of timber. Apparently this beaver family have lived there for over 20 years.

Next morning we awoke to overnight snowfalls, a car half buried in snow & a planned 40 kilometre drive.  Fortunately they provide snow brushes & ice scrapers in the hire cars here & they had cleared the highway, sort of anyway, so we were able to make our trip to Jasper National Park & the Sawridge Lodge where we were booked for three nights.

The stone Tourist Information office in Jasper as the snow gently falls

After a short stop in town we drove up to Lake Patricia & Pyramid Lake, the road was lined metres high with snow pushed off by snow-ploughs but the conditions were OK for the drive.  Both lakes were frozen solid & we got out for a walk round at Pyramid Lake, there were other people there getting ready for a BBQ.  They were all mums with their children & they started a fire then took the kids for a cross-country ski across the lake.  It was great to see how Canadians make the most of their cold weather, you'd have to be motivated to keep up your spirits I think, it would be so easy to hibernate with a book & a box of chocolates for the whole winter but they don't, they all seem to get out & about enjoying their more difficult climatic conditions.

 

Mums & kids out on Pyramid Lake

Jasper is less commercialised than might be imagined although it is still a hive of activity in the summer months.  It certainly has a more family-orientated atmosphere than Banff or Lake Louise.  It is however a cute township with many older, stone structures from the early 1900s when the railway first started bringing the rich & famous to the mountains.  One such visitor was Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote in the Jasper Park Lodge guest book in 1925:

"A New York man reaches heaven, and as he passes the gate, St. Peter said, 'I am sure you will like it'.

A Pittsburgh man followed and St. Peter said, 'it will be a great change for you.'

Finally there came a man from Jasper, 'I am afraid' said St. Peter, 'that you will be disappointed.'" 

Elk in a natural setting in Jasper Provincial Park

We had been told that if you drove towards Lake Edith (the road was actually closed but you could get part of the way in & that was enough for us) we would have a good chance of seeing some of the local wildlife - we saw loads in fact, big-horned sheep on the side of the road (they like to lick up the salt that is spread on the snow), elk with & without antlers & coyotes crossing the highway.

Winter parking on the highway shoulder



Frozen falls

A short drive south of town on the Icefields Parkway are the Athabasca Falls.  We had wanted to drive the full length of this road to the Columbian Icefields but the road conditions were listed as PWD (poor winter driving) so we felt that was a bit more than we could handle, snow on the road with ice underneath & snow falling too.  But the falls weren't far so we gave that a go & managed to get there in one piece.  The road to the falls is not cleared during the winter so it was closed but we could see plenty of tracks, even a few fresh one from that day, where people had walked, snowshoed or skiied into the area.  So we walked in, the snow was only middle calf or less & we had a roadway to walk on so really it wasn't too bad.  We were so pleased we had made the effort, the falls were almost completely frozen over & the scenery was pristine & glistening.

Using a short cut from the car park to the
chairlift at Marmot Basin

Now that Grant is such an 'expert skiier' he just had to have a day on the slopes at Marmot skifields, just a few kilometres out of Jasper.  Fan-bloody-tastic, he came home exhausted & aching all over but absolutely addicted to skiing....next holiday NZ?

Ice climbing on the frozen waterfall in
Maligne Canyon

While he was off on the slopes I went on a river canyon walk, the Maligne Canyon.  During the warmer months this is a raging river & set of waterfalls but in winter when everything freezes it is a wonderland of frozen formations & a paradise of ice-climbing (no, I didn't give that a go, but we did see a few people climbing).  The tour was pretty strenuous with plenty of up hill & down dale not to mention the ice cleats on our feet & the hiking poles just in case we lost our footing.  It wasn't however precarious just slippery! Great tour guide, great group of people & a great spot too, fascinating geological formations.



These rock formations will all be underwater
in the spring thaw & there is 10 metres of
ice under my feet

We drove back to Edmonton for a few more days (these were included in the Edmonton section)  Then caught the VIArail train to Vancouver. 

Enjoying the view from the scenic lounge



Mount Robson out the back window of the scenic lounge

What a great trip, it may not have been the five star, world famous Rocky Mountaineer but for just a few hundred dollars we saw all the same scenery & shared the journey with backpackers, travellers & Canadian families.