Poor, Poor Jasper

 

This is the only photo I took in/of Jasper, Alberta.

It’s not Jasper’s fault. I had a nice dinner there and a nice sleep. It was just the end of the line for my Highway 93 Paradise drive. It wasn’t nearly as flash as Banff, but it I suppose it deserved more than this random drive by shot.

Turns out all the voices of Calgary steered me a little wrong. I should have gone up to Edmonton, then I would have started at Jasper amazement increasing all the way to Banff, and more, I would have had a fantastic right turn taking me through a veritable Hogwarts of new-to-me national parks: Yoho, Kootenay, miniGlacier, and Revelstoke. No regrets. I will be back to give 93 its proper time and respect.

One of my favorite things about the stretch of road I was saying goodbye to were the many places to stop and watch water with purpose. Flowing and falling and squeezing and stretching, moving as if it were late for an important meeting with the next big thing.

The spot below was very hard to photograph but a thrill to be there and see what water can do. Welcome to Mistaya Canyon.

Those are the views from that bridge in either direction.

The area in this last picture creeped me out. I’d gone off path as usual to follow the incredible twisted majesty of the canyon and at this point, I would have had to either lower myself slowly or take the tree bridge. The thing about that perfectly placed log was, who put it there? It certainly didn’t fall like that. And a bear would need it to get up and down at this point. Was it a trap?! Did some hiker do that just for kicks? If bears can build wood freeways, or subcontract beavers to do it, is it only a matter of time until they build WMDs?!

I ran back to tell Solomon about it, but he was deep in meditation and I thought it best to not mess up his perfect Nothingness with questions of bear supremacy.

UP NEXT:

Not a National Park!

*sob sob sob