Friday 19th May
It was another beautiful morning and, thankfully, much of the smoke haze had cleared. It was a 5 1/2 hr drive ahead of us today so we set off from the hotel by 7 am. There is a lot to see along the way from Kamloops to Whistler and we used this online guide as a reference. Most of the route follows the North Thompson River making for beautiful scenery along the way. In fact, it was unbelievably beautiful with a lush, green, wide and flat valley floor and densely wooded mountains rising off to either side. It was picture-postcard stuff for almost the entire journey and so is another one I would suggest that you add to your bucket list. It’s a long day though, even with only doing the few stops we did, so factor that in to your planning.
Our first stop was at the Wildflour Cafe and Bakery in Clearwater where Mark had a coffee and we picked up some sandwiches to take along for the rest of the way. From there, it was only about 10 minutes up the road where we made our first stop to view our first waterfall of Spahat Falls. This involved a 5 minute walk through forest from the car-park though and so, still raw from our earlier bear experience, I stayed in the car but Mark braved the short journey. Mark returned not long after though to assure me that there were other people along the path and that it was safe, so, off I went. The waterfall was impressive but I was more impressed by my bravery! Just FYI: My fear was real and justified given we saw two more bears today, on separate sightings, with both attempting to cross a road!
Apparently, there was another waterfall just up the road, Helmcken, supposed to be the fourth largest in Canada. When they say ‘just up the road’ they mean 37 km up the road. Thankfully, these Falls were only a two minute walk from the parking area and were, indeed, rather spectacular. Something we were grateful for as the round trip to visit these two Falls added on just over an hour to our already long journey.
There is a time change when you pass from BC into Alberta and so we arrived into Jasper at around 5 pm, rather than 4 pm. We found our Lodging and dropped our bags and headed back down into town to try out the Jasper Brewing Company and to buy some supplies.
Mark has been rather underwhelmed by Jasper thus far, especially after the magic of Whistler Village. He’s wanted to come here for a long time and had been expecting something more like an Alpine Village. However, I would have to say the area reminded me a bit more of something like an Australian rural town. The other we noticed was the demographic shift; Whistler was full of lots of young people but Jasper was mostly people of our age and older.
Mark was not impressed with the beer at the Jasper Brewing Company either. Thankfully, our meal at the Inn Grill restaurant at our lodging was impressive and made even more entertaining by the large contingent of Edmonton Stingers basketball players and officials also dining there; there was quite a bustling jovial vibe and most excellent for people watching which is one of my favourite sports. We also had another delicious BC wine and think that any wine buffs out there need to chase down some BC wines; you wont be disappointed. I was desperate to get a photo of the Stingers but better judgement endued and I just exited the restaurant, like any other sane customer.
