Mountains!

We said goodbye to Ann at around 9 am, and set off west the 250 km or so towards Hinton, Alberta. But a little before Hinton, just after we passed the town of Edson, there on the horizon were the distant shapes of the Rocky Mountains. This raised our spirits after this boring long stretch of highway that we've traveled so many times on the way to and from Edmonton. The wind was howling again today, so that directing Miss Travelaire down the road was hectic. It would also help if the Alberta Highways department could do a little maintanence along here. We have never had a trip where the wind was howling so often and so long; it may be the time of year, we have not traveled in the spring time much before.

 

Upon entering Jasper National Park, we assured the attendant we were not stopping in the park, so we didn't have to pay a park entrance fee, and we were soon through the park to the continental divide, which is also the border of "Beautiful British Columbia." You could almost say we were home!

 

The highway we had been traveling ever since leaving Saskatoon Saskatchewan is called the Yellowhead Route, and passes through the mountains at Yellowhead Pass. This was the route taken by what's now called the Canadian National Railroad, after the Canadian Pacific had chosen the more southerly Rogers Pass.

 

Once through Yellowhead Pass and into British Columbia, we were now out of Jasper National Park and into Mount Robson Provincial Park, and we stopped at the visitor center where Mount Robson towered in the background with its peak in the clouds.

 

Around places like this, there's always the Japanese tourists, who love having their pictures taken!

 

Across the road we camped at Robson Meadows Campground (N53 01 53.7, W119 14 13.2). Anywhere you are around here you are beneath lofty mountains, as you can see through the trees in this picture of our campsite. The afternoon was warm, and we could sit out comfortably around a campfire well into the evening.