Back to Jasper

This weekend just past I took the Monday off to make it a long weekend, and headed up to Jasper National Park. The main reason for the trip was a combined birthday, with Breanna's two cousins celebrating their birthday on the same day. The last time I was in Jasper was during winter, so of course things were a little different without the snow there.

It takes about three and a half hours to get to Jasper. We actually stopped a little out of the township and drove around a hill to the Miette hotsprings, where you can hike up the rest of the hill on a couple of different tracks. There is either the short track or the extremely long track, but considering the short track is 5km straight uphill, seriously it isn't short by anyone's standards.

Its quite interesting hiking up the hill, because it is a National Park with wild animals running rampant. Not the type of animals you might find back home in New Zealand like birds and rabbits, but dangerous ones like Black Bears and Mountain Lions. Of course most of the time you'll be lucky enough not to encounter an angry animal, but they are usually wandering around. In fact, two of the party on the way down the hill ran into a couple of Black Bears, but luckily the bears didn't seem terribly hungry that day so let the encounter slide.

I'm not sure exactly how long it took to climb to the summit, but it was in the neighborhood of just under three hours. Quite the climb, considering you have to climb back down again. The view at the top was worth it though, as you got a 360 degree view of all the different mountaintops and the surrounding area.

The weather up there was nice but definitely cooling down from the heat of the summer. On the other days we traversed around a lakeside track, and went exploring the multitude of gift stores around the town. Jasper itself isn't terribly big, kind of like Hanmer, but in the surrounding area there is a lot to do. It was nice to escape away from the city for awhile, especially to enjoy the last of the warm weather before the winter snows hit.