Alaska #7: Mile 0; Jasper National Park; Alberta
News, Bad Drivers, Photography ·Friday August 29, 2008 @ 22:39 EDT (link)
20080828: (Fort St. John, BC to Jasper, AB: 370 miles.) Up at 0910 and had breakfast at a small restaurant next to the Best Western at 0948 (the hotel gave us discount coupons). We looked at the map and decided to take the opportunity to drive through Alberta, specifically through Jasper National Park, which is north of and contiguous with Banff, which I'd been to when I was working in BC several years back. My Uncle John (Sutherland) had emailed us directions to their place and we printed it (no charge) at the hotel Internet station. We left the hotel at 1122 and arrived at Dawson Creek visitor center at 1234. I spared you the photo of the giant beaver (it was next to the lamps pictured below; squint and you can see it in the reflections).
Dawson Creek is, as the photos indicate, mile 0 of the Alaska highway (BC-97 in BC, YT-1, AK-2). We missed it on the way there, since we took a slightly different route (highway 29); when we reached it, we had driven the entire length of the highway. We picked up some maple syrup for the Vanderburghs at the gift shop; not a great choice, but the selection was uninspiring.
At 1308 we left Dawson Creek heading towards Grande Prairie, AB via BC-2, arriving at the visitor center at 1450. We tried to reserve a site at Jasper National Park, but the parks system doesn't take same day reservations. At 1526 we pressed on heading for Jasper on AB-40 via Grande Cache.
Construction at Smoky River, 1719-1722; got gas in Grande Cache. We met up with highway 16 and turned southwest heading into Jasper National Park (and back towards BC; a small part of the park, including part of the highway 16 corridor, is in BC). At 1941 we arrived at our campsite in the park; fortunately were able to get one without a reservation: site C36 at Pocahontas. We cooked stew and coffee, and bought firewood and had a fire; it was a nice night, only rained a little while we were sleeping. The site was possibly the nicest all trip, although the one in Fort St. John was nice too and the wood was delivered (but the ground was gravel instead of dirt).
20080829: (Jasper, AB to Williams Lake, BC: 339 miles.) We got up at 0730, and finished breakfast at 0900; we drove up to the Miette hot springs (0922-1013). It's a very nice facility, $6/each I believe, with showers, and in-ground pools in which to enjoy the springs.
There were goats and big-horned sheep by the roadside; I stopped to take pictures of course; we were done taking pictures at 1058; we stopped at 1300 to try to call the Vanderburghs (to say we were running late), but nobody was home. Got gas again in Jasper.
We played some passing games with a twit in a silver Hyundai driving through the park at about 1625; AB EEJ 080; Honey would pass him, then he'd speed up and pass her, then he'd drive slowly again and she'd pass him, etc. What a pinhead; pick a speed already.
The scenery through the park was beautiful even though it was a bit overcast. There were several stops and detours in the park that I wanted to make, but we just didn't have the time. It started raining heavily at 1633 near Clearwater, BC; we stopped at 1700 in Little Fort to phone the Vanderburghs to let them know we'd be late. At 1805 we arrived at the junction of BC-97 and 24 (the 24 is a fairly short and slow east-west road) and headed north to Williams Lake (doubling back, since there isn't a more northern route). Since we knew we'd missed dinner (1800) we stopped at McDonald's in Williams Lake (1915) and got to my aunt and uncle's at 1938. Their children were there for a bit. We watched the Olympics with them until the power went out; we went to sleep fairly early, at 2239.
