Jasper National Park

It was rather chilly this morning so we had breakfast next door to the hotel.  It was a bit warmer when we finished eating so we checked out after 5 days in Canmore and headed out for Jasper NP.  The first part of the drive was a rerun but when we passed Lake Louise and got off on Hwy 93 toward Jasper the scenery improved a lot.. pictures later.  The drive was really pretty and we stopped a lot.  Although a lot of the stops was disappointing to find you had to hike a ways to see the attraction and we just won't hike in our motorcycle attire.  Too cumbersome to hike in..  but we were able to see some beautiful views.   It was @200 miles from Canmore to Jasper and we didn't go fast because we were siteseeing and we were cold.  We saw Lakes, Warerfalls. Icefields, Snowcapped mountains, turquoise streams and flowers...it was really a gorgeous ride.  We all kept our eyes 👀 pealed for any wildlife but I guess there were so many people on the road they were all in the deep woods.   It did warm up a lot and when we made it into the town of Jasper we had to take off jackets and shirts.  We ate at Jasper Brewing Company, food was good and service was also.  There are a lot of people here as well as everywhere we've been.  Did I tell you that this is Canada's Parks 150th birthday and all the parks are free?  That could be another reason everyone is here.  We've met people from everywhere.  It was kinda funny that we couldn't tell how far the hikes were cause there all in meters and no cell service to google and we don't remember meters vs yards. Ha. And the Australian people didn't know either..but the sign had also been tampered with so no one could tell.  The Australian people had walked a ways and turned around and came back, they gave up...so we didn't hike it either.  They really could use better signage on the road in Jasper N P.  It didn't give you much warning when a view or attraction was coming up..  We made it to Hinton, which is a little Northeast of Jasper, and checked in at Econo Lodge for the night.  I wished we would've had this room for the last 5 nights...lol. It's real nice.  Ok, I'm gonna try to get some pictures on here.  I have a lot from today, oh by the way on the way out of Jasper we saw 2 elk way off laying down by the river.  A lot of other people were pretty excited about them too.  Lol.  We are all looking for wildlife 🐏🦌🦅🐺

Kootenay National Park today.

We left this morning after having breakfast 🍳🍳at the restaurant next door to our hotel.. It was like 49 degrees when we left for Kootenay NP. 🇨🇦 Through the park was pretty with the turquoise river beside us a lot of the drive, and the mountains were pretty scenery.  There really isn't a lot of other attractions to stop and see.   This park has several campgrounds and lots of hiking trails.  When riding motorcycles we aren't really equipped to hike 5 miles, so we just rode through and enjoyed what we could see.   Rode into Radium Hot Springs and had coffee☕️☕️☕️.  Jan and I had a Canadian blend coffee and boy it was strong.  But that is how we like it..just took a few swallows to get use to it.   It will keep us going all the way to Vancouver, the barista said.  Lol.
We've had a time with the gas stations in Canada because they never take our card at the pump, not sure why, but we always have to go in and pay.   But we've managed just using our credit card and not having any Canadian 🇨🇦 money.
Jan and I went to super by ourselves tonight, Skip and Cheryl just wanted to hang out at their room, Skip wasn't feeling well.   We went back to Thr Drake Pub and had a delicious sandwich.
We are leaving Banff in the morning, Cold tomorrow again, going to Jasper National Park and on to a town called Hinton for one night.   We did see some big horn sheep 🐑🐑🐑in the town of Radium Hot Springs though.  Still looking for a moose or elk.. I though there was suppose to be a lot of wildlife up here... 👎 So far.  Will add some pics from my phone.  Third pic from the bottom was an unexpected pleasure. ❤️

Just around Banff.

Yesterday's (8-23-17) adventure was not exactly what we had planned but turned out well.   We headed up to see the Upper Hot Springs just out of Banff. We ended up taking the Gondola up to Sulphur Mountain.  It was breathtaking going up that high, I got butterflies and couldn't look down.  We got off and Jan and I took off on a boardwalk going over the mountain to a viewing area.  Lots of Stairs and walking, it was a climb.. Skip and Cheryl decided not to go and stayed around the museum area.  When to finally got close to the end we saw two red chairs, with people sitting in them.   I remembered hearing something about the red chairs so I told Jan we had to get our picture in those chairs.  He says,"there are people sitting in them"... well that's not stopping me, so I just asked them if we could get our picture in them and they laughed and said sure no problem.  I said it'll only take a minute, so we did and they were fine with it.  Lol.  We got a picture.  You know we are all just people and most are very friendly and don't mind helping you out.   Anyway, at the top was an old cabin looking structure, it was an old cosmic ray station constructed back @1956.  Pretty cool, it was put there because the mountain was one of the highest places in the area.  The view from up there was beautiful.  Oh there was also a walking/hiking trail going up there, if you want to spend two hours going up a very steep mountain, which a lot of people were doing.  Ok, Sulphur Mountain ✅, now on to the Upper Hot Springs.. We went in to this nice building only to find out you had to go downstairs to get a towel to soak in the springs that you could see from outside that looked just like regular swimming pool.  I thought I was going to see a natural setting of a hot spring but that wasn't the case.  So we didn't bring bathing suits so we declined that attraction.  Found out later about the "Cave and Basin National Historic Site.  (Which we did today.  That was more of what I was expecting.). After the Upper Hot Springs enlightenment we decided just to ride on The Bow Valley Parkway looking for animals, well none showed so we came back to Canmore to find supper.  We were famished for sure since we had only ate breakfast that day.     Well yesterday was my birthday so I picked Patrinos Restaurant and had filet mignon and two desserts to celebrate.  The servers sang Happy Birthday to me and put a sparkler on my cheesecake, which I posted a pic yesterday.
8-24-17- Today Skip had to get a tire for his trike and Cherywanted to do laundry so Jan and I went site seeing by ourselves.  Went into Banff and went to the Cave and Basin site.  It was so hot we had to shed jackets and chaps, but glad for the nice weather.. We toured the area and found it to be very interesting and had some natural hot springs that you could see and feel.  This site is the birthplace of  🇨🇦 Canada's National Parks.  I found that pretty exciting.  I think this is worth your time to see.  By the way this year was Canada's 150th park Anniversary so all the parks have been completely FREE, which is awesome.   Next we rode to Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake, both have that turquoise color and are beautiful.  And we found two more Red Chairs, got a pic.  Met a couple from Israel that told us to come and stay with them and he would give us a tour of Israel.  How cool is that.   Hey and we actually saw some animals, bighorn sheep 🐑 and 🦌 deer.  Hoping to see an elk and I would love to see the Northern Lights... pictures will come if I can get my phone to work.   It was a good day.  Had a few sprinkles of rain but nothing to be worried about.