So it is now official – you can’t even go for a shower without taking a camera I this country. Wait wait, listen to why!!

So on our walk to the showers on the morning of Monday 11th, we crossed a little stream and walked into a group of trees and found ourselves face to face with some enormous creatures that we thought at first must be deer. There were 8 of them. Some sitting in the shade and some standing and munching on the trees and shrubs around us. Totally unfazed by us they carried on about their business while the 4 of us argued about what they were!

Turns out they were elk. Ruddy great enormous elk!!

We had seen a sign to a cable ride up to the top of the mountain just behind the campsite and thought as a ‘starter’ to the day we would ‘nip’ up there on our bikes, ride the cable car, eat our picnic at the top while admiring the stunning vistas and then head on back before cycling on into Jasper town for a beer and ice cream – good plan eh?

On our way out of the ENORMOUS campsite (750 pitches puts it at the largest site so far – although as a National Park Site it is very quiet, huge pitches and at least 50’ between us and our neighbours) Charlie was already moaning about tired legs….

He stopped to have a moan about this, which gave John and Will a proper head start. We got back on our bikes and followed them when suddenly a huge creature sauntered across the road. Grey, at least 4’ high and with a big busy tail. Thought it had to be a dog at first, then thought maybe a wolf…. Nope – it was a coyote!!! How exciting is that?!?!?

So the ‘bike ride’ up to the cable car. You would think we might have guessed that a cable car was going to be at least half way up a mountain. So 10 minutes Charlie abandoned his bike and John then had to push it, and his, the rest of the way. Oh my good god – what a hike it was. So we went 3 miles and climbed an ascent of 250m. Add into that the scorching sun beating down on us and the 2 stone back pack and I truly thought John was going to have a cardiac arrest. William was the only one of us that cycled the whole lot.

Got to the top (about 1280m up) eventually 1 ½ hours later and were charged $100 for the 4 of us to go up the 7 ½ minute ride to the top. When we had acclimatised, rehydrated and thought about it we realized this was a ridiculous sum of money. We also realized we could do a combination of ‘activities’ at various points along the Ice fields Parkway for a much more reasonable sum including a cable car ride! So I pulled the old ‘sick child’ card got a full refund and we headed off back DOWN the hill (which in truth was the bit John was most looking forward to!).

William and John were long gone while Charlie and I tested our brakes properly. John got up to 45 mph and I think honestly I was faster on the way up than down!!

We then took the very nice, very flat, bike track into Jasper town. A very very overpriced and touristy town, which we managed to escape having only bought a couple of ice creams and a sticker for our trailer. Amazing what the kids try to persuade us they NEED and then minutes later have forgotten about completely.

Back to the campsite and suddenly there was an enormous elk wandering around the pitch opposite us. Got less than 5’ away from us. Truly incredible. It sauntered over to a chaps BBQ and sniffed around his trailer. Hilarious. I wonder at what stage we will get totally blasé about this wildlife encounters!!

Day 3 in Jasper we drove down a part of the Icefields Parkway and visited the Athabasca and Sunwapta Falls. The Athabasca Falls were the more dramatic. The Athabasca River thunders through a narrow gorge where the walls have been smoothed and great pot holes carved out by the sheer force of the water. You can walk down through the old route the river down to the bottom. Here John crafted his very own Inuksuik while the kids did their best to sabotage his best efforts.

One of the best bits has got to be pulling off the stunning Icefields Parkway that runs through this part of the Rockies at any of the sparklking lakes and taking a dip. Cold doesn’t come close to describing the numbing experience however, for our shower shy kids it did offer an invigorating, refreshing and cleansing experience!!