Day 20 Jasper

Finally took the time to do laundry! The problem is that it goes against everything in me to pass up a horseback ride, or a hike, or an evening watching beavers to do laundry! Sooner or later though even mundane tasks become priority and while Jeffrey and Nancy made a trip to the hot springs and Grandpa and Cecilia hung out, I headed to the cleanest laundry room I’ve ever worked in – including my own! I also took the opportunity to catch up on dumping and culling pictures so I can also catch up on blog posts. I do the writing every day, but adding pictures takes time, and downloading is often very slow, so the delays compound!

After a nice quiet morning, Nancy and Jeffrey returned for lunch and we headed along the scenic route to Alaska to see what we might find. We in fact found William A. Switzer Provincial Park, another beautiful Alberta treasure. The park rents canoes and we spent a lovely afternoon alternating paddlers on Blue Lake and hikers with Cecilia in the surrounding forest. While the hikes were lovely (though not stroller friendly as we’d been led to believe – can you say workout?!!) the canoeing was the treat of the day. The lake had a beaver dam (lots of those critters in this neck of the woods it seems), a family of loons with eight tiny babies and a mamma moose and her calf who were quite content to stand at the water’s edge, not 15 feet from the canoe and graze for ages. Shortly after we (Jeffrey and I were the canoe combo at that time) happened upon the moose the battery died in my camera! I was so frustrated I almost threw the thing in the lake! Thankfully I didn’t, as though I did not get the loons, I did manage some pretty cool moose pictures.

We are indeed in the far north apparently.

Jeffrey and Nancy

David and Jeffrey

A moose calf and her mama

Despite the BIG sign that read NO UNAUTHORIZED CLIMBING ON LOW ROPES ... somebody just couldn't help himself!

Or herself!! As God made 'em He matched 'em!!

Sadly (once again) we leave here tomorrow for British Columbia. I suspect you could spend a summer in Jasper and not see everything this exquisite place has to offer.