Arrive in Jasper

Patricia Lake, Pyramid Mountain

The light was simply beautiful as we drove into Jasper for the first time. It had been a long day and the sun was beginning to go down behind the massive mountains. As we approached an intersection, where the Jasper town sign sat, Kim saw a young elk off to our left grazing on the side of the road. Jasper is situated in a junction between the mountain ranges so it is completely surrounded by towering peaks and glacier feed rivers and lakes. We would be staying near one of those lakes.

Jasper sign, taken on a different day by Kim

Aspen Suites, The Grove – Patricia Lake

Jasper is only small and our accommodation was a little out of town, but we had to go through a small portion of the town to get to it. We were staying at Patricia Lake in the Grove suites. The drive to the lake was lovely through the scrub and woods. Our accommodation was in the newer part of the Patricia Lake complex, set away from the older bungalows. The suite we were in was very nice with a kitchen, lounge, fire place, bathroom and bedroom. You could easily stay here for an extended time.

Aspen Suites, The Grove – Patricia Lake

When I was going to move the car I came across a Chipmunk on the path. He ran up a nearby tree and sat on a limb at my eye height. I was about 1 metre away from him and he didn’t care. The wildlife in the area had become accustom to people being around so they aren’t so afraid and you are able to get closer than normal.

Sunset over Patricia Lake, taken by Kim

It was getting late by the time we had all our gear in our accommodation and somewhat settled. We still needed to find somewhere for dinner so we searched through the information in the suite about the local restaurants. We singled out one place which was the Best Western. It was a hotel but it had its own restaurant so we got in the car and headed back into Jasper. As we walked into the restaurant we were asked if we had a reservation, which we didn’t, but they asked that of everyone and still found a table for every patron. We were seated in the bar area which was nice a quiet compared to the main restaurant so it was nice to sit there and relax. Our table was a booth, which most of the tables in this area where, and next door to us was the swimming pool. As we sat there and ate our wonderful meals we overheard others in the room talking. They had also came from Lake Louise today just like us. That makes sense as there is very little to stop and stay at between the two places.

We had a wonderful meal which finished off an fantastic long day. We finished our meal and went back to our cabin and got a good nights sleep.