We thoroughly enjoyed hiking around Jasper. After the somewhat strenuous Edith Cavell hike, we took in a few easier hikes to the nearby lakes all of which are beautiful and crystal clear. We also took a drive up to Miette Hot Springs to soak our achy muscles and joints and oh what a relief that was.

Before leaving town, we did stop by to check on the mama grizzly and her cubs at the river and they were still feeding on their elk from a few days earlier. We said it was a national geographic moment and it really was – the photographer from the magazine was perched up on the hill overlooking the river snapping away with his fancy camera and all the town was abuzz that photos of the grizzly would be in the magazine sometime soon! It really was a once in a lifetime event to see and we are so glad we were able to witness it.

These are the berry bushes that are in full bloom for the bears and the bears are out in full force feeding as we found out. No photos but we did come face to face with a young grizzly on our bikes and lets just say we hope that doesn’t happen again!

We left Jasper via the Icefields parkway heading south down to Kootney National Park and Radium Hot Springs and made a few more stops along the way.

We checked out Sunwapata Falls

The Athabasca Glacier

Marble Canyon

And the Painted Pots – the place where the Indians used to go to get their face paint!