On Thursday 1st August, we spent the morning wandering around Jasper browsing the various gift shops. It was a glorious hot sunny day around 30 degrees which is a strange experience when you are looking at snowy mountains all around.
After a small lunch, we left for Blue River, about 150 miles west of Jasper towards Whistler. We drove around the edge of Wells Grey National Park, and past Mt Robson, the highest peak in Canada and then on through Mt Robson National Park. It was very green with dense pine trees on the massive but gentle slopes travelling alongside a gushing river, almost the whole route.
There's not much at Blue River, other than Mike Wiegele's Helicopter Skiing Resort, where we stayed. Each wooden cabin has its own helipad and the place is famous for celebrities flying in and out to ski in the winter. In the summer it's quiet, with no helicopters in sight, just beautiful mountains and a lake.
Upon entering Blue River town, we had seen a sign for a river safari, so we decided to do that. It was about 5pm so the sun was a bit lower in the sky casting a very pretty amber light on the river and Grizzly Bear Valley. The boat was small, with a powerful engine, and there were about 8 of us on the trip. We slowly left the boathouse, rounded a river bend through the glorious valley, and the river opened up wide, like a lake with beaches and small islands in the middle, perfect bear country.
On board was another passenger, a Mexican husky. She was fairly small for a husky with a thick black and white coat and ice blue eyes. She was a bright as a button, and stood at the bow watching everything, totally alert and ready for anything. We took so many photos of her as it was hard to take your eyes of this captivating animal.
About half way through our hour long trip, they moored the boat so we could take a short hike up to a isolated waterfall. It was so special being somewhere where few others go as so many beautiful places are awash with tourists. Later back on the water we saw a lone black bear, looking for food on a small beach. We watched for about 10 mins and managed to take quite a few photos.
Gina
No comments:
Post a Comment