The Miss Elaine-ous Life

random acts of life, family and photos

And then we went to the mountains!!

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If y’all thought I inundated you with photos from our time at the lake while in Canada, well…

I took a FEW hundreds of pictures while we spent just a little over 24 hours (only, boo hoo) in Jasper.  It’s this cute little, touristy town in Jasper National Park in the midst of the Canadian Rockies.  We had also planned to drive down to Banff but after all the flooding in that area and Calgary, we decided against it.

After a fairly long drive from the lake house and one detour to see if we even wanted to go into the Miette Hot Springs (which we did not) we finally got to town and our place for the night.

We booked a spot at some darling chalets (well, just one chalet for us) a bit outside of town that backed right up to the Athabasca River.  This little place was smaller than my first one-bedroom apartment but they still managed to put in a kitchenette and 3 beds!  Plus it was just so cute. Obviously Japser = Cute.

I have a deep love for the mountains because my parents road-tripped us to Colorado a few times when I was a kid.  There is one trip in particular when I was nine that will forever have a place in my memory because a lot happened, but that’s a story for another time.

The mountains are similar to going to the ocean for me.  They force me to realize how small I really am in the grand scheme of it all and of course a different perspective is always a good thing to me.

Also, I went to see Misty in Canada the first time the week after Sept. 11th happened.  (another story!) and she and her husband took me to Jasper and it was so amazing that I swore then that someday I would take Tim back there.  And so I did. With our three beautiful children in tow too… 🙂

p.s. If you make it to the end of this post I thank you from the bottom of my mountain-loving heart. 

Becker’s Chalets in Jasper, Alberta, Canada.  They are highly recommended.  Also, I love that we had chalet #3 and we have three kids. 🙂

  
We drove out to Pyramid Lake first, which was so gorgeous! 

Ben took the first photo below and Gavin took the second one below with my phone.  G actually wanted to take pictures all day with my phone and a few of them turned out really well!

LOVE THIS ONE!

Then we ventured over to the Jasper Park Lodge and took a canoe ride.  Besides G saying “We’re gonna DIE!!!” 565 times we had a lovely jaunt across the emerald green Lac Beauvert.

Really surprised G is smiling in this pic.  He truly had issues the entire time. 

We also ate lunch at the JPL on the deck that over looks the lake and the food and drinks were SO good!  Not to mention the company.  The kids kept running inside the lobby to visit the faux bear below.  They loved him/her. 

We drove out to Maligne lake.  It was a gorgeous drive.  I cannot say enough about the color of the water in the lakes out there.  Unreal. 
Then we finally made it to Maligne Canyon, where I went when I was there in 2001.  Thankfully at least Tim and B were pretty impressed with the waterfalls, etc.

Then we made it down to the “6th bridge” where the river ends up and the water is COLD!  See my face below when I first stepped in.  K on the other hand thought it was NO BIG DEAL to have her feet freezing off and frolicked in the water like it was pool!

Our last stop in Jasper was the mountain tramway that took us up the mountain.  I have to say I was a tad nervous riding up and down in the gondola.  And apparently so was G.  But the kids got to touch SNOW(!) and we were all able to see some really amazing views while up there.

You can see the town of Jasper down below in this one and yes, it is shaped like a “J”.  How cool is that? 

On our way out of the park, this beauty crossed in front of us on the road.  Man, it must be hard to carry around those big horns all day! 

So, that was our mountain time, wonderful but all too short… 
Do you like the mountains?  Riding in gondolas?  Freezing cold water?

Comments

  1. That silhouette picture of your son on the mountain…wow. Beautiful! We try to take a trip up to the Smokey Mountains in NC and Tennesse, every other year, we love them! You’re right, seeing them always puts life into perspective for me.

  2. That lake is so beautiful. I kept wondering why people weren’t immersed in the water. I guess because it is too cold.

  3. Those pictures are AMAZING. I love the freezing water ones! And the bear sign. It looks incredibly beautiful there. It reminds me of my first honeymoon, when we stayed in a “luxury” cabin a few hours from Toronto. It was absolutely gorgeous. I bet it was hard to leave! But the gondola? EEK!

  4. I made it to the end, how could I not? Your pictures were gorgeous. In all the years that I lived (grew up) in Canada – I never made it to the Banff area. I plan to. Soon. Very soon!

  5. Oh my lord these pictures are amazing, it makes me want to go to the mountains, can you believe I’ve never been?! My favorite is the kids under the bear sign : )

  6. Oh these photos make me wish I had a DSLR when we went to Niagara and when we went to the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. Gorgeous shots!

  8. That looks absolutely gorgeous! I’ve never been to the Canadian Rockies, but we love visiting the Colorado Rockies! (I think it’s a requirement for all Midwesterners to vacation there at least once.) We took my son there last summer when he was about 2 1/2 and he’s STILL talking about it!

  10. I made it to the end! That’s a part of Canada I’ve always wanted to see. I’ve only seen the east and west most parts. On the water and all. I do love mountains and gondolas. I do not love freezing cold water!

  11. Oh, these are absolutely gorgeous. The mountains, the lakes, the sky… wow. Glad you had a great trip.

  12. Wow. Those pictures are AMAZING. I really love the one of Lake Maligne! Like you said, the colors – wow. I have just added a new “must go to” destination whenever we get to a point that we can actually take vacations! I do love the mountains!

  13. Your pictures are stunning!!! Ashamed to say I haven’t been to this part of my own country!! Might need to get out there sooner rather than later!

  18. Wow!!! That is just absolutely gorgeous! Thank you for sharing those lovely pictures. It really makes me want to take a trip there as well. And it really reminds me of all the things I want to show my kids. This is such a big, beautiful world.
    Mountains are awesome. Such a powerful feeling just looking at them. So majestic. Love. And that WATER!!!! So blue! And green! Just gorgeous!