As cold as Icefields Parkway

We headed back to the highway and made our way up Banff toward Jasper National Park along the Icefields Parkway. This road boasts more than 100 glaciers along the entire length of the road! Take that, Glacier National Park! We paid our entrance fee for the next 2 nights, the time we planned on spending at Jasper, and not a mile later we ran in to a bear jam! This bear was right along the side of the road and easily within touching distance! There was even this guy who was about 5 ft from him

snapping photos. After that we headed on the road and were instantly amazed by the beauty and splendor of the drive. Every couple of miles there was a turn off and the map of the park we obtained had a stop by stop guide which told us hiking info and told us what to look for at each turnout. We lazily made our way up the road, stopping and hiking every chance we could get as well as being sure to see all the

sites. We didn't have anything planned for this day besides this scenic drive, which worked out perfectly as we needed the whole day to do it. In the end, we hiked a total of 10 miles that day. We decided to stop just within the bounds of Jasper National Park at the Columbia Ice Fields, where you can take a ride out onto one of the glaciers! We both really wanted to do this, but by the time we got there the tours were done for the day. We ended up sleeping in the van with a bunch of RV's in the overflow parking area for

the night. The next morning we got up and got on one of the first tours out on the Athabasca Glacier. Unfortunately, this was the same tour as a senior citizens tour group which made getting on

and off the bus a big ordeal. We took a transfer bus to what I will call a glacier-mobile for lack of a better word. But these huge machines were designed specifically for riding up and down this Glacier and there is only one other place they are used, Antarctica. After we got out onto the glacier, we had 20 minutes to walk around and enjoy the scenery. I filled up my water in a glacial runoff stream and then we walked around on the ice for a bit. The size of the glacier at the point we were standing on it was as deep as the Eiffel tower is tall! It was a really awesome experience that we were both glad to

have done. When we got back we headed off again down the Ice Fields Parkway, this time making our way to the actual city of Jasper. We continued to follow our trusty

guide, stopping at scenic stops and doing a few more small hikes, even seeing some pretty amazing waterfalls again. When we arrived at Jasper our plan was to just take in the town, get some food and do a little souvenir shopping. There was only one spot that we missed on our checklist and we were planning on doing it in the morning, so we had some time to ourselves. We ate at the Jasper Pizza Place on the rooftop and then visited every souvenir shop along the strip, picking up a few

goodies for some of you lucky folk :) Then we made our way to the

Jasper Brewing Company where we planned to spend the evening until it got dark enough for us to park the van somewhere and sleep the night. The beer was great and the Rock Hopper IPA was especially tasty, good enough for us to fill up our growler again! After we left the bar we walked down the strip again and decided to see a movie since we both weren't tired yet. We saw Dinner with Schmucks, one of the 3 movies playing and the

only one we had heard of. After the movie we headed back to the van and ended up sleeping in a train depot right along the main stretch. In the morning, we would leave Jasper behind us and make our way down the Alaska Highway!