Waking up on the Yellowhead Highway

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On the way to our first night's campsite on the Yellowhead Highway we stopped in at Smithers to see a farmer's market and Alpine themed village. After a quick look around we drove through New Hazelton, home of three weird sculptures.        

Then after a good night's sleep we went into Prince George to the wonderfully designed Two Rivers Art Gallery  where the building itself was the main attraction.      

Then we revisited Jasper National Park for a lovely two days.  We were lucky enough to get a campsite at the Snaring River campgrounds that quickly filled up to overflowing.  Even though it seemed to rain on and off the entire time we were in Jasper we had some wonderful hikes and views.  It was deja vue all over again as we went into the same bar we visited 4 years ago to again watch the Olympics and use their wifi!  We visited Angel glacier       where David continued with his obsession with "sleeping Ellen" photos while taking stunning photos of the landscape..  Then David got into the act and....  

The same day we went to Athabascan Falls which thundered over a cliff and was easilty accessible and quite dramatic.     We were able to walk along a dry branch of the river where it used to flow from the falls which was a great geological experience.  Then it waas on to Maligne Creek, but on the way we were treated to a wildlife display!    

Maligne Creek was awesome...thundering water, beautiful pathways, deep gorges!     .

It was hard to leave Jasper and continue on our way to Edmonton.  Let me digress from a chronological tour for a moment to travel the path of the "World's Largest" which Canadians seem to have a fascination with.  So, we saw the World's largest Dragon Fly, Sausage, Boot and Ukrainian Egg..  Unfortunately we were too far south for the World's Largest Perogie. Not much going on in these small communities.

We drove through Stony Plains, a wealthy little community that had over 25 murals depicting their history.    

.  While in Stony Plains we found out about the Blueberry  Bluegrass Festival which we went back to for one day while in Edmonton.  Really great music and quiet camping too!

We camped at a campgrounds in Edmonton, which was very convenient, and not too bad.  Edmonton doesn't have a whole architecturallyy  going on as we found out during a walking tour but did have a unique conservatory displayed by climate zone if 4 distinct glass pyramids. .  They also had a huge  heritage festival covering many acres.  We spent almost the whole day!        .  Good food and great entertainment and great weather.  Speaking of weather, they say that it has been the rainiest summer ever in Canada and we can attest to that, although we have been reasonably lucky to have most of the rain at night.

The big deal in Edmonton is the EDMONTON MALL...drum roll please..which is the second largest mall int he country and features, along with an infinite number of stores, a full sized skating rink, a full sized wave pool, 2 enormous roller coasters, etc., etc.  We spent about 1/2 day there, with David holed up in a coffee shop working on the internet!         .

Outside of Edmonton to the east we visited a wonderfully done re-created Ukrainian village with many costumed interpreters.          .  I really loved the boxes of chalk displayed in the school house because they were exactly the ones that we used when I was in elementary school..

 

On our way through farm country to Saskatoon!