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We saw tons of elk yesterday, but today I got some good shots of them. This was at about 9 AM, right outside the Jasper Park Lodge. |
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Yearling elk and his mama |
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Mountains off the side of the road on the way from Jasper to Sasketchawan Crossing |
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The scenery, once again, was just spectacular. There had been a fresh snowfall overnight (the first of the season) and everything just gleamed. |
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The Athabasca Glacier. It was amazing. We took a sno-coach out to the glacier surface, and our guide told us all about the icefield, the glaciers it feeds, where the water ends up, and how important it is. |
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Here's one of the designs on the sno-coaches. |
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Check out the blue ice up on the mountainside. Glacial ice appears blue because of way the sun's rays hit the compressed ice. |
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A nice couple from Texas took our picture with the wall of the glacier behind us. The guide told us we were lucky to have the fresh snow, as all summer it had been brown and ugly looking. It was on the chilly side, of course.... |
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The sno-coaches. They test the icefield every day to make sure the parking location is safe. Apparently, not very far away from this spot, there is a crevasse that could swallow two coaches side-by-side and four deep, and the glacier is moving, so it is important to check. There were blue cones set out to mark the safe boundaries. |
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Bighorn sheep causing a large traffic jam. They were pretty cute, and there were tons of them, none of them showing much fear of cars. They were going for salt deposits and other minerals. |
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Mama and baby bighorn |
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A lagoon off to the side of Emerald Lake, with the Burgess Shale showing on the mountain (lots of fossils, protected area). |
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The Emerald Lake Lodge. |
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We walked around Emerald Lake before dinner. It had been a very wet summer, and I found myself fascinated by the various mushrooms and fungi. |
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There were tons of them, even on the "dry" side of the lake. |
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More fungi. |
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And the last, I promise! |
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Our room at the Emerald Lake Lodge had a wood-burning fireplace that they set for us each day, but no TV - just what I wanted! |
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The view from our balcony at the Emerald Lake Lodge. |
Days 1 & 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7