In the morning, it was time to leave the backcountry and return to civilization.  Ah, civilization!  After sleeping poorly and uncomfortably during the night, I was ready for a good night's sleep in a real bed.

But first, we had to get there...

Although we only had a two-mile hike ahead of us, we still needed to be efficient in getting packed up that morning.  Even after we were done hiking, we still had a long journey ahead of us, as we were driving to Jasper National Park that afternoon.  Once again, we were very efficient and managed to get everything packed up and ready to go by 7:30.

During our return hike, John decided to take a side trip to Duchesnay Lake, to see if he could find our binoculars, which he had lost on the first day.  Instead of waiting for him at the junction, Mary and I kept hiking and managed to get a good distance ahead of him.  He didn't catch up with us again until we had reached the steep descent.  Unfortunately, he was empty-handed; the binoculars weren't there.

At the end of the steep descent, after about forty-five minutes of hiking, we reached the junction with Angel's Staircase and Point Lace Falls.  There, we dropped our packed and took a break, so that we could visit Point Lace Falls.  These falls were not nearly as tall as the falls we had seen during our hike, and the creek into which they fell was choked with debris from fallen trees.  Nonetheless, the falls were very pretty; as they trickled down the rock, they did indeed look like lace.

It took us another forty-five minutes of hiking, along the flat trail, to finish our hike; but it seemed like the longest forty-five minutes ever.  We were so eager to be done hiking that it seemed we would never be done.  When we finally entered the Takakkaw Campground, though, any frustration that we had vanished; we were so close that we nearly broke into a run, backpacks and all. 

We completed our hike just after 9:00 a.m.  Relieved that our backpacking trip was finally over, we dropped our packs at the rental car (which, by the way, was just as we had left it, luggage and all) and got comfortable.  We changed out our hiking boots and put on sneakers; we also changed into clean clothes, just so that we wouldn't stink as bad.  Finally, after cramming the backpacks into the back of the station wagon, we drove away from Takakkaw Falls and back towards civilization.

Before we could begin our journey to Jasper, we first had to stock up on supplies: beer, sodas, snacks, and, of course, feminine hygiene products (since my monthly visitor had arrived somewhat unexpectedly, several days early).  We decided that the best place to accomplish this task was Lake Louise, as that would put us closer to the junction with the Icefields Parkway - the road to Jasper National Park. 

The Icefields Parkway is one of the most scenic roads in the Canadian Rockies.  Extending from Banff to Jasper National Parks, the parkway is only accessible by park visitors, possessing a valid park pass, and is closed to commercial vehicles (with the exception of tour buses, of course).  Along the way, there are many, many points of interest to see, and we planned to see as many of them as we could.  To make sure that we didn't miss a thing, we used a road guide called Parkways of the Canadian Rockies, which we had borrowed from my friend and former co-worker, Deb, who is a regular visitor to Jasper National Park.  This road guide was incredibly detailed and soon became our best friend during our long drive.

Our first stop was at the Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint, where we could see the Crowfoot Glacier on the mountain of the same name.  Below the mountain range was Bow Lake, formed by the Bow River, which paralleled the Icefields Parkway at this point.  The viewpoint not only offered us these beautiful views, but we also had a lovely display of giant purple wildflowers.

At the next pullout, we could see Bow Glacier, which is where the Bow River originates.  Immediately after that, we stopped at the Peyto Lake Viewpoint, where we hiked the half-kilometer paved trail to see Peyto Lake.  John felt that this would be a good way to keep our legs stretched during the long drive to Jasper, especially after that difficult backpacking trip that we had just finished.

The hike to Peyto Lake was very educational; along the way, there was a series of signs with information about the foliage and the animals that inhabit the Rockies.  We were able to find the names of some of our favorite flowers, and it helped us to identify some of the small animals that we had seen.  For example, we had seen a small field mouse at our campsite at Twin Falls; we learned that it was actually called a pika! 

During our hike, we saw more wildlife - a brown speckled bird walking through the grass.  John and I recognized it as a grouse, similar to the one we had seen in Alaska during our motorcycle tour.  The grouse drew quite a crowd, too; as soon as we pointed it out, everyone around us stopped to photograph it as well.

At the end of the trail, we came to Peyto Lake.  Named for Canadian wilderness explorer Bill Peyto, the lake lies in the Mistaya Valley, below Bow Summit - the highest peak along the Icefields Parkway.  Bow Summit serves as the watershed divide between the North and the South Saskatchewan Rivers.  The trail ended at an overlook, where we had a nice view of the glacial-green lake; overhead, the low-hanging clouds formed shadows on the still water.  It looked very serene and peaceful.

We hiked back to the car and drove on to our next stop, where we discovered a short path to what we think was Upper Waterfowl Lake.  The path took us a tenth of a mile through very tall grass, to the muddy shores of a small but pretty lake.  Mary, on the other hand, seemed more interested in the outbuilding nearby; it was an old outhouse that reeked; she giggled when I showed her the inside of it.  Kids!

By the time we returned to the car, it was getting close to lunchtime - and we were in luck, because we were getting close to Saskatchewan Crossing, too.  That was where we were planning to stop for a bite to eat.

Upon arriving at Saskatchewan Crossing, we parked at the gift shop and found that there was a cafeteria-style restaurant inside.  Sure, that would have worked for us in a pinch, but we were looking for something a little...nicer.  We then noticed that there was a sign that read "PUB", with an arrow pointing around the corner.  At first, we didn't see a pub nearby, so we asked the cashier in the gift shop for directions.  She indicated that the pub was behind them, across the parking lot, at the motel.

The pub turned out to be a great choice for lunch.  Their menu consisted of a selection of burgers - beef, buffalo, elk, turkey, and even veggie - served with your choice of two sides.  The catch, though, was that you had to cook the burgers yourself, on a grill located in one corner of the restaurant.  The bartender provided the patties and the buns; we did the rest.  We each had buffalo burgers, along with our two sides, and they were delicious. 

After lunch, we got back into the car and continued on our journey to Jasper; we still had a long way to go and a lot of stuff to see along the way. 

One of the first stops that we made was at the Weeping Wall - a limestone cliff on the Cirrus Mountains, where water constantly flows, giving the wall the appearance that it is "weeping".  (There is a similar wall with the same name in Glacier National Park in Montana.)  The Weeping Wall, of course, was very beautiful and interesting; but even more interesting was the sign located at the viewpoint.  Apparently, explosives had been placed in the vicinity many years ago, but not all of them had been retrieved.  Some are still out there, waiting to be found.  The sign had been placed there to warn visitors that they should not touch or attempt to relocate any explosive found in the area; instead, they should mark the location of the device on a GPS and report it to the Canadian Park Service.  John was fascinated with this sign; what is it with men and explosives?  I thought for sure he was going to go searching for one!

From the Weeping Wall, we then drove non-stop towards Sunwapta Pass, which not only marks the park boundary between Banff and Jasper, but it also marks the watershed divide between the North Saskatchewan and the Athabasca Rivers.  And just past Sunwapta Pass, we came to the Columbia Icefields, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Jasper National Park.

We stopped at the Icefields Center to take a short break from driving and to inquire about Icefields tours - this was one activity that we simply had to do during our stay in Jasper National Park.  What we learned was that we could not tour the icefields ourselves; we could hike up to the ice, but we were not allowed to hike up the ice.  To get onto the ice, we actually had to pay to ride in a Sno-Coach - one of the red buses with giant tires, specially made for travel on the glaciers. 

Since the icefields were so popular - and since we were planning to do our tour on Sunday - we decided to stand in line to see if we could actually reserve a spot for a specific time.  Unfortunately, they do not take early reservations; tours can only be purchased same day.  We did learn that the first tour leaves the Icefields Center at 9:00 a.m. precisely every morning.  Having learned that, we knew exactly what we needed to do then: we needed to make sure that we were on the first tour of the day on Sunday morning, to ensure that we beat the crowds!

As we left the Icefields Center that afternoon, John turned on the GPS and suggested that we start geocaching; after all, we had been in Alberta nearly a week and hadn't even looked for a single geocache!  He had selected a few caches to find along the Icefields Parkway and thought it would be a good diversion for us to find them.

The first one we found was at the Bubbling Springs Picnic Area, which was named for a cold spring that bubbles.  This spring was very fascinating and not like anything I had ever seen before.  The spring is fed by water that bubbles up through the bed beneath the surface of the clear pond, forming circles in the sand.  It was fun watching the bubbles rise; I probably could have stayed there all day watching them.

The next cache we found was about two miles up the road, at the Mount Christie Picnic Area; this cache required us to hike about two hundred feet into the trees, through the tall, dry grass next to the Athabasca River. It was definitely a scenic cache!

Soon after that, we came to Athabasca Falls; there wasn't a cache there, but we stopped anyway so that we could see these magnificent falls...along with the hundreds of other tourists who had just stepped off of their tour buses.  Simply put, Athabasca Falls was ridiculously crowded, even more so than anything else we had seen to date.  We had a difficult time trying to take pictures of the falls because there were just too many people in the way.  Eventually, I pushed my way through the crowd and snapped a few pictures of the falls before stepping aside to let someone else do the same. 

There were rangers (or wardens, as they are called in Canada) at Athabasca Falls that afternoon, and what they had on display caught our attention.  They had a collection of antlers and horns from different types of deer and elk; these were antlers that they had found within the park boundaries.  The wardens were giving a lecture about the antlers and which animal had produced them; and they encouraged the children to touch them and even try to pick them up.  None of the children there could pick up the elk rack, but the deer antlers were passed around from child to child.

Athabasca Falls was our last stop of the day; only fifteen minutes after we left the falls, we finally arrived in the town of Jasper.

The town of Jasper had a much different look to it.  While the towns of Canmore and Banff reminded us of Estes Park, Colorado, Jasper was more like Payson, Arizona - it had that small, mountain-town appeal, but it didn't have the Alpine village look to it.  The town itself was long and narrow, with the Canadian-Pacific Railroad tracks running parallel to the main thoroughfare.  All along the main drag - and on the next block as well - there were restaurants for every taste, gift shops, outfitters, and grocery stores.  In the very center of town, next to the historic CIBT bank, there was a Jasper National Park Information Center, in the middle of a large grassy park, where there were people out enjoying the beautiful warm day.

As we drove through Jasper, we suddenly realized that we had absolutely no idea where our lodging was for the night.  We knew that we were staying at the Bear Hill Lodge and Cabins, but neither one of us had bothered to write down the address of the place.  Eventually, John had to stop to ask for directions - and even then, we still struggled to find the place!  After driving around for nearly a half an hour, we finally found the place, set back in a residential area three blocks away from the main thoroughfare.

When we checked into the Bear Hill Lodge that afternoon, we were greeted by a friendly man, who made small talk with us while he processed our information.  He asked us, "What do you think of this weather?  We can't believe how hot it is here." 

He wasn't kidding; it was hot in Alberta - much hotter than we had expected.  On that particular afternoon, the temperature was thirty-one degrees Celsius - or eighty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, or the equivalent of Arizona in March or April.  And on top of that, the cabin didn't have air-conditioning.  He suggested that we use the fan provided and leave all of the windows open.

As soon as we had the keys to our cabin (#5), we unloaded all of our gear and got settled.  Right away, we noticed that the cabin was not quite as nice as the one at Johnston Canyon.  For one thing, it was much smaller, so we had a tough time finding room for all of our backpacking gear.  It also didn't have the amazing view that we had come to enjoy.  However, what the cabin lacked in space and scenery, it made for in amenities.  The Bear Hill Lodge came equipped with a sauna and hot tub, just fifty feet from our room, and a laundry room, which meant that I didn't have to spend time at a Laundromat!  Additionally, there was a nice, grassy lawn in front of our cabin, as well as a picnic table. 

And, best of all, there was WiFi!  For the first time in a week, we could check our e-mail and use Google to get directions!

We used Google to find a place to eat that night; and we chose Papa George's, located just blocks away from the lodge, along the main drag.  Papa George's was exquisite; the food was delightful, the wine was wonderful, and the view was amazing...that is, until someone parked their motorhome on the street in front of the restaurant...Nonetheless, Papa George's was an excellent choice for us to celebrate our return to civilization.

After dinner - and before we could return to the lodge - we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on necessary supplies: cereal and milk, sodas, and snacks for hiking.  We also found the Jasper Liquor Store, to stock up on our supply of adult beverages; John felt it prudent to have a bottle of wine in the cabin, in case we decided to dine in one evening.  Then, once we had all of our supplies, we returned to the cabin to turn in for the evening.  It had been a very long day, and we were ready for a good night's sleep...

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