I really liked the feeling in Jasper NP. After feeling a little over-crowded in Banff, despite it's beauty it felt nice to move on to Jasper where it was less crowded. This morning started with lots of crying. The kids were crying for no apparent reason, and by the time we were packing up the car for the day I was crying too. I was done with crying babies. I think Mason was just looking at me like I was nuts, but he provided a hug and we went on our way. We ended up grabbing a late brunch at a breakfast/pizza place which was pretty good. They had tasty skillets at a decent price. Woodrow was not being the best, so it was the first time where I actually left a restaurant with one of my kids. We went and sat in the car (crying) while Theo and Mason finished up their food.
 |
| He learned to sign "drink" which was helpful...he wanted one |
We decided to check out the Valley of the 5 Lakes this day. The Valley of the Lakes Loop is a 4.5km circuit with a 66m elevation gain. So...we hadn't planned to do all of the loops within the trail but we ended up taking a longer loop back (side glance to Mason here). The trail started out pretty wide and level through some pretty wooded forest. There were even a few people riding bikes. It was really nice, but I was skeptical that it was going to last. But, as a huge positive Woodrow was actually walking along this trail for the first while instead of wanting to be carried from the moment we stepped out of the car.
Eventually we came to an open area where the trail took a few different routes, after this open field there was a short steep/rocky hill and there were people mountain biking down it-crazy! We hiked along and found the first little lake. It was really pretty and I took a few nice photos of the boys. Theo of course, as expected plopped his feet right into the water, but luckily never complained about hiking with wet feet after he stepped in the lake. We continued upward on the trail to a path that overlooked two of the lakes. They were so green and you could just see through them so well. We stopped for a snack break at the top of one of the paths. The path was pretty narrow, so I was concerned about Theo just stepping off the side of the hill and tumbling down into the lake. I mostly love his sense of carefreeness and enjoyment, but other times I worry he'll walk off the edge of the earth.
We saw two red Adirondack chairs set-up at one point overlooking the lakes. There were people sitting in them as we passed by, but we later learned that they were set-up there for people to enjoy, but also take pictures in and submit for the red chair photo contest. When we started to head back "down" and on the return route Mason led us to a longer path back that took us around one of the big lakes. There were some thick parts of forest and the path wasn't as well kept up. Again, I thought this was part of Mason's plot to see a bear. We definitely saw evidence that bears had been along the trail, or some animal, but we both suspected a bear. Fortunatly we did not see one while hiking. This path back around the lake had some steep inclines and we all picked up a few bumps and bruises, but it wasn't horrible (although I may have been complaining in my head along the way).
Once we got back to the main trail Woodrow ended up walking quite a bit, almost an hour, and this trail ended up being the one he walked he most of throughout the whole trip. When we got back to the car it was late afternoon so we were in that spot of wanting food but it was a little early for dinner. We ended up grabbing stopping at a Korean restauraunt so Mason could grab food, we walked by the train track that runs right through town (the kids loved this), and then we grabbed some ice cream while checking out the shops in the townsite.
We decided that we would drive back along the Icelandic Parkway, to the South, and see if we could find some wildlife and also to check out some views that were supposed to be pretty amazing. The boys fell asleep on the car ride so it was nice and quiet for a bit. Mason did see a bear crossing the road, but it was so car in front of us, that we didn't really see it well or get any pictures. Darn! The lookout points weren't really labeled, so we "missed" the specific stopping points, but when we realized how far we had gone we decided to check out two Water Falls that we had wanted to see before we left the area.
It worked out just perfectly. When we got to the Athabaska Falls the kids were still sleeping so Mason walked ahead and checked them out and took some photos while I stayed in the cars with the kids, did some organizing and then did some word searches. It was a really quiet time of evening and the parking lot was mostly empty, so it was nice to just enjoy the scenery. When Mason got back I took a turn and took some photos. This was a pretty powerful waterfall and you could get pretty close. I was glad the kids were sleeping so we didn't have to worry about them running around-even though it was fenced in. I was also happy there wasn't a crowd, although there was one man who I thought was going to lose his phone because he was hanging over a railing to get a video. The falls did make me really think about those CRAZY people who thought it was fun to go over the side of Niagara Falls in a barrel. When I got back to the car I sent Mason back out to go check out "down stream." Since the kids were still sleeping I figured he might as well venture out and he got some AMAZING photos.
When he got back the kids were starting to wake up so we continued a little further South to the Sunwapta Falls. These were a little smaller, but again the area was empty which was nice. The kids really liked seeing the waterfall and walking on a bridge over the Falls. As we headed back to town we took some nice pictures and just soaked in the scenery. We grabbed some pizza and Chinese before heading back to our room for the night (it was around 8pm) and cleaned up the kiddos before everyone passed out again.
 |
| Reading Books before Bed |
No comments:
Post a Comment