100 Mile House, BC to Jasper, Alberta

Location: Jasper, Alberta

Today’s Total Expenses: $101.40

Transportation: $40.00
Accommodation: $27.40
Food: $17.40
Entertainment: $16.60

Happy Birthday!

Today was my daughter’s birthday and I was afraid we might not have an Internet connection so that I could use Skype to call her and wish her a Happy Birthday.

There was supposed to be a WiFi connection at the campground we stayed in last night, but no matter what we did we just couldn’t get it to work.

But, as luck would have it, we stopped at a little market (Jim’s Food Market) in Clearwater, BC and were able to get a good enough signal so that we could call. The connection wasn’t great but we could at least hear each other most of the time even though it was a very short call.

Happy Birthday, sweetie! Love you. Hope you had a great day.

Mount Robson

Along the route to Jasper we stopped at Mount Robson. Mount Robson is 12,972 ft tall.

Note to BC Provincial Parks: I understand that Canada uses the metric system, but for most visitors 12,972 ft would seem way more impressive than the same height in meters (3954 m). All I’m suggesting is that you put BOTH measurements on the signs so people who are not familiar with the metric system don’t confuse it with feet or don’t need to do the conversion (which most of us would get wrong anyway).

Jasper National Park

We were a little taken aback at the cost to enter the park and the cost for camping, which I will cover a little later.

I will leave the rant to Geoff, who is much better at such things, but it seems to me that, being Canadian, we shouldn’t have to pay quite so much. We had planned to stay in the park longer, but not at these prices.

A senior’s day pass (good for 24 hours) into the Park was $16.60 for both of us. There is no discount for extra days and if you plan to stay a week or more, you might as well get the annual pass that is about $140, but at least it covers most Federal Parks.

Now, this does’t include the cost of camping. For a tent site with no electricity or water the cost was $27.40/night. Although there were toilets and showers, the toilets were a fair distance away – particularly for someone like me who generally needs to get up at least once a night – and the showers were way over by the entrance to the campground.

For the same amount of money, or even less, we’ve been able to stay at a reasonably nice hotel in the States.

I don’t want to sound negative but we are Canadian and pay Canadian taxes. Shouldn’t there be a different rate for taxpayers?

At the Grand Canyon, if you were a senior and a US resident or citizen, you received a significant discount for park entry fees and camping. And, although the park entry fee was $25.00, it was good for an entire week.

Wildlife Encounter

Okay, time to get more positive.

After popping into the Town of Jasper for a quick look we headed back to our campsite and actually passed three elk along the way, just grazing at the side of highway.

They didn’t seem to mind when we pulled over to video them. I guess they’re used to seeing humans around.

They are actually quite large. At first glance I thought the one I saw might actually be a moose.

So far we have seen more wildlife in the few days we’ve been in British Columbia than we saw during our two-week cruise in Alaska.