Farewell Jasper

13 July – Friday

Departed Jasper bright and early for the long drive to Hope, which will leave us a short drive into Vancouver on Saturday morning. The most amazing sight as we left – Jasper has two sets of traffic lights and the resident herd of elk were using the traffic lights to cross the road! Elk in the middle of the crossing, not in a hurry to go anywhere and cars everywhere. When tourists see any sort of an animal they just stop immediately to look and locals get frustrated and try to drive around. Another beautiful day, clear blue skies, no wind and hot again. Excitement early on with another black bear sighted close to the road. Unfortunately, he who was driving refused to stop, so there are no photos of a bear. Shortly afterwards, a moose strolled across the road in front of us, stopped in the middle of the road for a look, then wandered off into the forest. Once again, superb scenery, stunning mountains and a close look at Mt Robson, the highest mountain in the Rockies.

Lunch stop was at Kamloops in 39 degree heat before heading down through more mountains to Hope. What we thought was just a small town is actually famous as the setting for a number of movies, including Rambo, Shoot to Kill, Fire With Fire and K-2, to name a few.