Day 25 ~ Tuesday 15th September, 2015

Yep – up reasonably early – it hurt today! Lol We got a quick breakfast at the hotel and then loaded up the car and we were on our way back to the Icefields Parkway.

The weather in Calgary was very wet and miserable. Thankfully we were heading out of town so we got to see everyone else stuck in peak hour traffic – just like the Monash Freeway. Glad the sunrise sky-scape shoot was cancelled! - we wouldn't have been able to see anything!

The closer we got to Canmore, the better the weather looked. It was still ominous, but the clouds were higher and we could even see bits of blue sky occasionally lighting up the tips of the mountains in the distance! They had quite a lot of snow fall in the Canmore/Banff area in the past 24 hours, snow all the way to the road and the further we got past Canmore, the more snow there was! We hadn't seen the snow right up to the freeway yet, so we knew it would be a winter wonderland everywhere.

We made a bee-line to Lake Louise. Our first visit it was raining and blowing a gale. The 2^nd & 3^rd visits, it was pouring torrential rain. So we crossed our fingers, and we were blessed with a very still lake, with low lying snow all the way to the bank. I was wrapped. It was a totally different look to the lake again!

Steve and I quickly grabbed as many photos as we could, and then raced back to the car.

Our next stop was on the IceFields Parkway to Herbert Lake. Unfortunately the mountain view was obscured with cloud, but we took photos and hopefully can bring the mountain out later.  How pretty is this image that Steve photographed of Herbert Lake!

Back to our favourite spot – Waterfowl Lake. We basically had the place to ourselves today. The wind picked up way too early, so no reflection photos, but it was pretty anyway! We were happy we stopped.  This time we have snow on the mountains, whereas the first time there was no snow - amazing what a week can do!  Steve had another look around for the sunglasses he lost, but alas, they could not be found.

As time was running away from us, we decided our next stop would be back at Nigel Creek and the waterfall we originally saw before the OOAK trip. The OOAK crew scrambled down the steep bank to the falls, so we just had to get those shots too!!

Hmm – very steep on the way down – caused a little avalanche! Lol Made it down without incident and we found our spot and took some images, just as the snow came down! Scrambling back up was also interesting…. for me & my little feet anyway – Steve & his big size 11.5's made it up no issue! Lol

We won't be driving all the way to Vancouver today. Its already 2pm and we have only just made it to the Athabasca Glacier, and stopped on the road again – but this time due to road blasting works.

Pulled into Jasper at 3.30pm and headed straight to Famoso for lunch!! YUMMY!! Plus they have Corian Rain Cloud counters, so what's not to like? Steve had a large Sicilian Pizza and I had a Ham & Pineapple Pizetta & Salad! They have the biggest wood-fired oven – its awesome! Bloody fantastic pizza's – have I mentioned how good they are? Lol The waitress is from Victoria BC, so she gave us some tips on where to go when on Vancouver Island. Tofino seems to be “the” place to visit.

The Hire Car is making a weird noise out of the front right wheel – could be brake related? Anyway – we'll continue on and monitor it.

The weather has really turned ugly in Jasper. Not sure we'll be seeing anything of Mount Robson at this rate… hope so – just a little bit from the car park and I'll be happy!

Found out the name of the falls that are right on the road just down from the Icefields Skywalk – Tangle Falls. :)

Made it to Mount Robson, and as predicted, no mountain. I took Steve inside the information centre where we picked up some brochures and in that time the clouds parted just for a moment, and I raced back to the car to get the camera and I at least got a couple of photos – not perfect, but eh, at least I could see Mt Robson!

We then headed into Valemount and Steve was finally reunited with his 200mm lens – happy days.

25kms South of Valemount I spied a very big black object on the side of the road – YES – A BEAR!!!! OMG – they do exist!

So a very frantic few minutes on the side of the road, getting the longest lens's on our camera's and then we slowly made our way back to the bear. What a cutie he was. A black bear, not a full adult we assume, as he seemed petite. He was very comfortable with the car being very close to him. I rattled off a few images and then we backed up and Steve got his 200mm lens on the camera and we got close and had another go at photographing him. I stood up through the sun roof – they come in quite handy!

Because we had parked the car and I was standing up through the roof with a huge camera, it obviously caused interest in passing traffic, so we left not wanting to disturb the bear who was very happy sitting down eating some grass. I am sure we have a few hundred images of the bear between us – surely one or two of them have to be in focus! lol

So after that bit of excitement we decided to continue on driving to Kamloops. Its a huge day driving, especially with all the photography stops we've had & we are tired, but we are keen to get to Vancouver Island to make the most of the time we have left there.

We got a room at the Four Points Sheraton, got a good price and a decent room – was nice.

The car noise is getting a lot worse. Steve isn't sure what it is, but when he brakes it sounds like something is grinding. There doesn't seem to be any shock absorber working either. We will take it back to an AVIS dealer in Kamloops in the morning and see if they can work it out – or give us a new car to continue our journey on.