Wow we have had quite a week. We left Edmonton last Monday morning and drove to Jasper.We managed to get a campsite but it had no electricity, therefore the lack of blog entries this week. Stayed 3 days in Jasper. The scenery in the Rocky mountains is incredible and awe inspiring. Everywhere you turn you are surrounded by majestic mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, canyons and waterfalls. Our campsite was rather remote and it was not unusual to see a herd of elk grazing within the campground borders. Elk are like deer but bigger and their Indian name is wapiti which means "white rump" because their rears are very light in colour. That is one way you can distinguish them from deer. We had a few sightings of bears as well as we drove various roads. All around we found "danger/beware: bears" signs. It is recommended that if you come across a bear, make lots of noise to scare him off; also recommended that a person should never hike alone in bear country. Always bring bear spray (which is a kind of really strong pepper spray). We did not buy any because I am not a very brave person and there was no way I was going back country hiking! Jasper and Banff are national parks and they work very hard to keep everything as natural as possible. As one of our tour guides said: "take nothing but pictures and leave nothing behind but footsteps". We drove from Jasper to Banff on Thursday along what has been  described as the most scenic route in the world. Again, most incredible scenery around every bend, up every mountain, down every valley. We went past the Athabaska glacier; so cool since I had always wanted to see a real glacier! We made so many stops for viewing and for pictures that the trip between Jasper and Banff of 288 km took us all day. In Banff we had another non electrical campsite. We stayed for 2 days. Went to visit Lake Louise. World famous for the intense blue/green coulour of the water. Crowds of people: we circled the parking lot for at least 20 minutes before finding a spot to park. Before we left for Calgary this morning there was quite a commotion right near our campsite. A bear had been sighted at a campsite about 200 meters from ours (gone before we had a chance to see it!). A park official was called and he came and made lots of noise and shot some rubber bullets to encourage it to leave the campsites. Sure glad it decided to leave!

Today we are in Calgary and this afternoon we went to the Calgary stampede. It was really interesting to see a real rodeo with lots of bucking horses and calf roping etc. It was really hot though, I am sure there will be lots of sunburned people out there tonight!

We are now truly in the Rockies!

Grover enjoying the view

Grover likes mountains

elk grazing in our campgrounds

bear by the side of the road. It had 2 cubs with her

A most charming town to visit; many Australian young people come here to work in the summer.

all hikers carry bear spray......just in case

Our campsite at Whistler's campground Jasper. Note the tall Douglas fir trees all around; very good for lumber

Sign in campground. We had to make sure there were absolutely no food sources, no scented things left at night. Even had to lock up the barbeque

Athabaska glacier: has retreated quite a bit in the last one hundred years. This frozen river is at least 80 feet deep.

Larger town than Jasper; more crowds, mountains all around the town; must be a beautiful place to live!

lunch time inside the trailer

Peyto Lake. Notice the shape, like a wolf's head. The beautiful blue/green water is a result of rock flour. This is rock which has been ground to a fine powder by the glaciers. Meltwaters wash this powder into the lake, causing the intense colour.

glacier on the way to Banff

Lake Louise near Banff. I did a geography project on this lake when I was in grade 6 and always wanted to see it in real life

Did a lot of traveling these last few days. On Friday we entered Alberta and drove to the Dinosaur Park. This is a huge area of land with lots of sandstone, absolutely breathtaking to see. Sort of reminded me of the grand canyon (of course not as big). It is in this area that a large amount of dinosaur bones have been found in the last number of years. They have identified more than 56 different varieties of dinosaurs, some plant eating and some flesh eating; some huge and some smaller. This area is world famous and bones from the site have been sent to museums all over the world. We saw a complete skeleton of a baby dinosaur, which was about 8 feet long. We went on a 2 hour bus tour of the area, and saw many more bones imbedded in the sandstone, as well as a complete rib cage and vertebrae in one area and an almost complete skeleton in another area. We also saw what we thought was a log lying on the ground but when we tried to pick up a piece we realized that it was a log that had fossilized and turned to stone. Just fascinating! Saturday we drove to Edmonton. Listened to the big Holland-Costa Rica game on the radio while driving. Since it was a 6 hour journey for us, listening to the game made the time go quickly. Even better was that Holland won! We visited with Jerry, the man that Eddy immigrated to Canada with 45 years ago. He still lives in Edmonton. Great catching up with him. Monday we will travel to Jasper and Banff and stay for the week.

dinosaur bones

cactus growing in the badlands

dinosaur park

incredible to actually hold these bones

badlands landscape: this is a hoodo (sandstone rock with a iron ore cap on top)

dinosaur ribs

complete skeleton

wonderful campsite in Brooks Alberta

speed limit on highways

sandstone rock landscape dinosaur park

Jerry and Eddy: note the orange shirt-Holland had just won the soccer game!

We are now camped at an RV trailer park just outside of Swift Current, Sask on the transCanada highway. Drove all day through flooded areas. Saskatchewan and Manitoba received more than 200 ml of rain last weekend. Much flooding of fields, some communities even evacuated. Much concern for the farmers as they lose their crops. Many roads flooded and bridges affected. Our highway was fine thankfully. Tomorrow on to Alberta!

fields of canola Manitoba

Flat prairie land

Salt mines near Chaplin Sask: we thought it was snow!

RV camping Sask: cramming us in like sardines! Oh how I long for northern Ont provincial parks!

where is the privacy?

road carved out of rock north of lake superior

inukshuk on top of rock

Grover inukshuk

mystery wild flowers in park: anyone know what it is?

flooded fields near Winnipeg

clouds Manitoba are unique: seem low and  3D

It is Wed evening and we are at a campground in Brandon Manitoba. Since we are so far north it is still light at 10:00 pm! We drove for about 10 hours yesterday north of Lake Superior, between Terrace Bay (before Thunder Bay) to Kenora.  Saw many rocks and trees and rocks and trees and rocks and trees. Many inukshuks built on the tops of the rock roadsides. Inukshuk means "in the likeness of a human" in the Inuit language. The traditional meaning is "you are on the right path" So these human likeness built over the years seemed to show us the way west. Beautiful country to drive along; many rivers we crossed all flowing into Lake Superior.

Only trouble was that the gas stations are few and far between and a couple of times we almost didn't make it from one station to the next. A few anxious moments! The minute we crossed the Manitoba border the gas was cheaper: from close to $1.50 per liter in north Ontario to $1.28 per liter. I like this province! One little problem: the mosquitoes are as big as baseballs and the black flies have chased me into the trailer. I will add a few pictures to show what we have been up to.

trees and trees and more trees!

moose crossing signs instead of deer crossing! Haven't seen any moose yet but did see a black bear cross the road..

giant statue of Canada goose at Wawa

trail walk at rainbow falls prov park

Went through Wawa yesterday. Found out that this name means "wild goose " in Native language. Today we drove and drove and drove and finally got to Kenora where we are camped for the night. It took us 2 tanks of gas today and at nearly $1.50 per liter you can imagine us saying "ouch!" There is a soft rain falling tonight and 12 degrees getting down to 9. Brrrrr. happy Canada day!

Saturday June 28: Ontario is huge! Today we stopped at Sault Ste Marie, at a KOA campground. The best thing about this is that there is WiFi! We will stay here Sunday for a bit of a rest (and maybe catch the Holland soccer game! Will post some pictures as soon as I figure out how!

 Sunday morning breakfast

Friday June 27: we got as far as Grundy Lake Provincial Park. Beautiful park, lots of mosquitoes! The campsites are great; private and pull through for the trailer, which made life easier.