Jasper, Alberta

We've been following an arm of the Yellowhead Highway since just east of Vancouver, when we turned north on hwy 5 in the town of Hope, BC. Today we drove north out of Valemount and joined the main arm of the highway, which begins in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and ends near Prince Rupert, BC, some 1,840 miles west (2,960 km for those north of the border). The road has only been open since 1970, but has been in use since the early 1800's, when Pierre Bostonais led fur traders through the Rocky Mountains. French voyageurs referred to him as "Tete Jaune", which translates to Yellowhead because of the blond streaks in his hair.

Driving east on the Yellowhead, we entered Alberta at the western edge of Jasper Provincial Park.

We drove through (or more accurately, around) the town of Jasper on our way to the rv park where we've reserved a site. Along the way we saw this interesting sign, which brought home to us just how far north we are!

Speaking of being north....

Sunrise this morning was at 4:39 in Valemount, which means it's light for nearly an hour before then. Sunset tonight was at 10:17, which means that as I write this (12:05 am), we've just lost enough light to walk around the park; which we just did with Sasha! Other than the mosquitos being thick and the odd light, it was a great walk. S enjoyed it immensely, and met two other Bostons on her travels. We're staying in a KOA near the town of Hinton, AB, because all the provincial park campgrounds were booked solid back in February when we defined our itinerary. Hinton is, like so many other towns in this area, originally a railroad town. Now it has grown to depend on tourism as it's main source of income. It's about 40 miles back to Jasper, but our choices were limited, and D refused to stay along the road in a turnout overnight! The weather today was hot, hot, hot, but we have good power and are running the ac units constantly. All is well!