Jasper National Park, Canada

I had this weird dream that Greg and I drove to a magical land where it snowed in July; where elk, deer, mountain goats, big horn sheep, a wolf and THREE bears walked past our car; a sign nonchalantly directed us to Alaska and then right before I woke up, we walked on a glacier.

Wait a minute. That wasn't a dream, that was our weekend!

July 1st is Canada Day, a national holiday. Greg had the day off and since most Canadians took off Friday to make it a long weekend, he decided to do the same.

On Thursday we drove 248 miles to Jasper National Park, stopping along the way to enjoy the sights. I read that it's the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies and that our route along The Icefield Parkway would take us past 100 glaciers and lots of wildlife.



During one of our stops, we followed a path up a mountain which lead to a breathtaking view of one of those 100 glaciers. The further up we went the colder it got. We passed patches of snow while flurries danced around our heads. The temperatures were in the low 40's. We never saw nuttin' like that in all our summers in Houston!



Wildlife was easier to spot than we expected. We just had to follow the direction of all the cameras aimed out of all the windows of the vehicles pulled over on the highway. Greg learned the routine quickly. I yelled, "sighting!" and he eased the car on to the shoulder behind the other cars. I felt like wildlife paparazzi.



We spent two nights just outside of Jasper and did as much as we could do in three days. We plan to go back and have put it on our mental list of "Must Do's" when company visits. It's an amazing place.