One More Rodeo or You Can't Trust the Signs

We camped at Whistlers Campground in Jasper National Park.  This is a larger and more primitive park than Banff and the town, which is in the park, is smaller than Banff townsite as well.  Thus, the signage isn’t so good.

Our first full day we took a hike to the Valley of the Five Lakes.  Except that it turned out to be a hike to “the missing lakes” because somehow we missed the turnoff on the trail and ended up hiking through fields and up hills all the while hearing a bubbling stream to our right.  Since it was an unseasonably 90 degrees the hike was not going well at all.  I finally stopped and said, “No more”, at which point David headed straight downhill through brush and brambles until he found the stream and called me to follow. We spent a lovely afternoon dipping into the stream, eating lunch and just enjoying the silence and each other.  Then back up the hill and home to Celeste to get ready for the rodeo.  We had met a waitress at a bar the night before and asked her about the rodeo and she said, "Yeh,  Its great.  They even have real cowboys.  I wne t the other night andone of them said "Howdy Ma'am."  That was enogh for me. This was a real rodeo with grown-up cowboys, bucking broncos, steer wrestling and a dance afterwards.  The rodeo was on the dirt covered ice rink in the Jasper activities center and the dance afterwards was to be in the curling lounge, luckily not covered with ice for the occasion.  We cannot wait to see if Fairbanks has a curling team.  Those little curling stones are so cute.

The following day was another sign fiasco as we tried to find Bubbling Falls and the Pocahontas Mine.   David is the miner in the middle. We found the turn-off but no signage for the mine and then hiked up and up a very dusty path looking for the waterfalls, but finding only a man and his son who said we missed the turn and not to worry because there was no water at this time of year anyway.  So, down and down we went, back into our car and on the road for not more than 2 minutes when we came to a pull-off where we could see the “no-water” falls right by the side of the road.  Pretty strange.

All was forgiven, however, when we saw bunches of cars pulled off on the shoulder (where there was absolutely no signs whatsoever) and found dozens of people wading across a mile wide, fast running glacial river which was no deeper than their knees.  So, in we went to wade with them.  Absolutely sandy bottom, absolutely level, cold and fast running.  What fun (How many of you would be brave enough to show that photo?)

Back to the campground to find the resident elk parading about.

The nest day, August 18 was my birthday which we celebrated at a campground outside of Dawson Creek and Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. We are on our way to Alaska!

David made a new friend in Banff at the Icefields Center.