Jasper

Today we are taking things a little slower, we have been really pushing in the sites and there is less to see here in Jasper. We are really hoping to see some wild life here. After a lye in this morning and spotting a white tailed deer in the field behind our cabin which was delightful our first stop is Anthabasca Falls which is about 30km from Jasper. We fortunately took a wrong turn and were fortunate enough to see a black bear our first and i think our last. We watched him for ages as he was eating berries right by the road and seemed totally oblivious to the cars of people watching him or her for that matter. The falls were really pretty when we eventually got there and we spent some taking in the sites. Next stop Mt Edith Cavell - what an exceptionally beautiful mountain, one of the highest in Canada apparently, although this statement popped up a lot where ever we went. We walked up quite a steep path to get a bit closer to the glacier and round the corner was the most beautiful glacier lake and glacier cave - ooh how exciting.

We did the complete walk of course stopping at the glacier cave, i was brave enough to go inside, it was freezing and i got shouted out by other people saying it wasn't safe, this cave was right below the Angel glacier, if i was going anywhere then everybody standing round was going to.

Well the final highlight of the day was coming across two Elks on our way back to our cabin along the road. Unfortunately they had been spotted by millions of other tourists as well, which was ok, but then these eejets got out of their cars and went right up to the Elks and started trying to feed them carrots, i was horrified, this wasn't the first time i had seen people abusing the wildlife. i was hooting and shouting out the window that what they were doing was illegal, of course to no avail, on the positive side the Elks didn't appear at all bothered by all these people, thankfully.
On the wildlife side of things, people touring here seem to have no idea how to treat wild animals and i often came across people feeding them and being far closer than they should be, it seems there is no respect for the wildlife but more about the people themselves and getting that holiday snap. In addition dogs are allowed everywhere in all national parks which again as much as i love dogs and all animals i totally disagree with and quite frankly this could be having a massive impact on the minimal site-ing experience.

More pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sbramhall/RockiesDay8#