We arrived here quite late and still heavy rain and storm. When we pulled in to our camp place suddenly one rear tire sank into the ground. Only with four wheel drive we made it out - but the place was completely spoiled.

We got a new place - this time asphalt.

It rained the whole night and next morning we were asked to leave the place because of fludding. Everybody gathered at the information. Nobody could leave Elkwater because tje highway out was also flooded - something which never happened before.

Here we stopped two nights and recovered from the adventures and rain. We did our washings, bread baking, car cleaning.

Unfortunately Rita cached an infect and she enjoyed the non-travelling. But we didn´t see anything from Medicine Hat.

Partly we used Hwy 1 and than towards north to the „Dinosaur NP“ - is part of UNESCO world heritage. First you drive over the totally flat prairie only to suddenly stand in front of deep valley and ravines with beautiful round hills. Over thousand of years water has carved through the prairie and formed unbelievable curves.

Unfortunately we had again flooding when we arrived and we couldn´t hike the trails. So we continued to Drumheller.

This is Dinosaur world in the r´heart of the badlands 150 km northeast of Calgary. Whoever is interested in Dinosaur and bizarr landscapes must come here. Because of the plenty of Dinosaur discoveries this part is also part of the UNESCO world heritage

And the Royal Tyrell Museum (worldwide one of the best in this categorie) shows very impressive the live of this giant creatures.

Many „Western movies“ and others have been made here

Coming from the flat prairie we saw the Rockies rising even being still 50 km away - what a sight. And a special highlight for us.

The Banff Nationalpark is one of the most spectacular part of the world and the town Banff one of the most touristic place - but still very pleasant

Here we meet Barbara and Vic again (we stood with them 5 years ago when we travelled the first time West Canada) and we had many things to tell. It was a very nice evening - thanks Barbara and Vic

From Banff we drove few kilometers to Sunshine Medows. A beautiful hiking area. In summer full of flowers and with deep bleu lakes. But we couldn´t go up - still 1/2 meter snow. We hiked in the valley at the bottom for 2 hours - a good training

When we started hiking we saw signs of bears rooming around. We were fully equiped „to fight“ the bears: Hiking sticks, a bear bell; singing, a bear spray and a „banger“. But no bears.

When we drove out of the valley suddenly a bear on the road. We first expected a black bear - but no it was a grizzly. He strolled along the small stream at the side of the road and did´nt care at all about us. We could fotograf him (it feels so save in a truck) and we watched him at least for 10 minutes. We enjoyed this thoroughly.

Here we made our first longer hike (4 hours). We started on Lake Louise village by bike and rode up to Lake Louise - 5km and partly very steep. From the lake we hiked up to Lake Mirror and further to Lake Agnes. From 1.700 m to 2.100 m. With fantastic view to the turquois blew lake and to the surrounding peaks (some more  than 3.000 m high. And to the Ice fields in the West. At Lake Agnes is a tiny but nice tea house. Everything is brought up by helicopter. This hike is a must

Most probably one of the most spectacular and most beautiful panorama routes in the world. Leads along fantastic mountain peaks, unbelievable turquois coloured lakes, narrow gorges which led disappear whole rivers and glaciers right next to the road.

We saw an elk next to the road.

The pictures tell everything:

From Jasper on Hwy16 East and after 41 km turn right and follow the beautiful valley uphill. 53 km from Jasper comes Miette - on the way we saw 2 huge Elks (see the short movie clip).

Miette Hotspring is the hootest mineral water spring in Canada - 54° C from the spring and 39° C in the first pool. The coldest pool has 13° C and 2 more are in between. The Bath lays beautifully surrounded by high mountains. The pools are all outdoor. Canada´s thermal bath culture is not comparable with Europe: Besides the pools you have very simple changing rooms and that´s it. Water and landscape is what they sell here and the price is high. The Canadians know how to capitalize on their natur. 

We had a peaceful and nice morning. After lunch (in our camper) we wanted to visit again. We were shocked: in the meantime 2 huge busses with school classes had arrived and the pools were packed and screaming loud. There seems one rule for letting visitors in: So long you still see some water there is place. And in the 13 ° C pool you always will see water - now we know why they have a 13° C pool!!! We disapeared immediately

We were already very positive surprised by Jasper 6 years ago and also this time. Inspite of being the touristic center of the whole region Jasper remained a lovely smal town which attracts mainly back packers. It has a tremendous amout of hiking trails, it offers white water rafting, bicycle routes and relatively much space. Interesting is the huge railway station with the long trains and the huge (and many) diesel lokomotives - and their sound.

We just love this place.

11 km from Jasper lays this unique canyon und a visit is a MUST. The relatively large and fast Maligne River has forced this deep (51m) and narrow (few meters) canyon - unbelievable what water in combination of limestone can create. The path leads along the ridge and crosses the canyon 6 times. Everytime it gives a „special feeling“ to cross the bridges.

Embedded in a majestic mountain world this lakes lays at 1. 673 m height and 48 km from Jasper. It is the largest glacier feeded lake in the Rockies. It is 22 km long and very narrow (some times few hundred meters) and 97 m deep. And beautifull bleu colored. It is surrounded by high mountains (Queen Elizabeth Range) with inclined rock formations and sharp ridge. We made an exhausting hike to the top of the „Bald Hills“ (2.170 m) with no trees around. So a fantastic view to the lake and the surounding peaks (snow and ice covered) is the reward for tour.

We stood overnight at the like and left next morning early for Jasper. On the way down we saw our first „moose cow“.

Since we had first problems with our electrical system short after our start in Halifax - but we attributed to the long ship passage and the shut down of the complete control the problems appeared again after 2 months in Sault Ste. Marie. There we went to a campground and contacted the manufactorer company Langer & Bock. They excellently assisted us via telephone. But the problem just disappeared as fast as it appeared.
Now one month later in Jasper / Alberta again the same problem: dispite total charged batteries we woke up in the night by the loud beep of the inverter. And the freezer / fridge had also switched of as well as the battery monitor showed low voltage. It was than clear we had a serious problem. We decided not to contnue West (Prince George) but to return East towards Edmonton. In Hinton / Alberta we found a nice KOA campground where we emptied our storage room, removed the shelves in order to access the batteries. And we saw the problem: At one battery one connector pin was loose, heavily corroded and the cable was already starting melting - it seems a manufactoring problem from the beginning which appeared now after 11 months of heavy use. Clear this battery was gone. On Monday a specialist will come and than the decision: do we have to change this one or all six. Unfortunately this broken battery damaged two more because of periodic internal short circuits. 

We decided to change all six because the new one have different dimensions and different electrical data - and we cannot mix them.

The change was done by company CARS  RV & MARINE in Hinton. Rick Grinell and his team did a super job and the service was outstanding. Rick had to telefon a lot until he finally found similar batteries in Edmonton. The Exide dealer promised to send 6 overnight but the next morning only 4 arrived. Rick again telefoned quite a bit until he found two more in Grand Prairie (4 hours - one way). He has sent his own company  car - without charge.

Also the workmanship was first class - and fast. We really can recommend this company!!!

www.thecars.ca

We want to positively tell the excellent support of the company Langer & Bock on telefone and email. With this have use there can always be break down and it is good to know to get this back-up.

We took Hwy 40 which leads along side the Rockies. A beautiful and recommendable route if you come from Jasper. Our first stop was in Grande Cache - a good basis for hikes in this part of the Rockies.

We planned to stay overnight in Grand Paririe but didn´t find a suitable palce to stay in downtown and the campground was too far away. Grand Prairie is the center of the northwest part of Alberta and has more than 50.000 inhabitants - a busy place. We continued until Sexsmith where we stood overnight

Small but cosy village with a huge grain silo and a beautiful „western style“ main road. We saw at the main road a suitable parking place to stay overnight - we oversaw the railway trial behind and promply in the night the trains passed by. With incredible noice. We will learn to select better night places.

To go further north we took the Hwy 2 to Peace River. It leads through plains (Prairie) and is mainly very fertile farmland - beautiful yellow fields. In Dunvegan we stopped.

We stopped at the Peace River (huge und flowing beautifully through a deep valley. You cross the river over a pittouresque „Golden Gate“ bridge. The small resort at teh river has a tourist center, a museum showing a old church and wooden building from the first missionaries. Also a very fertile garden farm with flowers and vegetables. We had an interesting talk with the owner.

This town is a center in this region and offers everything you need to travel further nord. Luckely we came here at the weekend where a country fest happened. We joined in and learned how such a happing is organised: strict entry controls, a lot of police (even a police helicopter was survying), strict separation of „beer trinker“ and „non-beer tinker“ by fences.

So with all this surely the 7.000 visitors behaved!!

The country music bands ranked from good to bad. But verybody enjoyed and we met interesting locals and had good conversations.

Besides this the second happing was an international speed boat (jet boats) race. Up to 500 hp and a lot of noice - but tremendous fast.

We liked this 2 days

At the way out we saw a similar vehicle than ours and turned by. It was an Mercedes owned by Esther and Erich from Switzerland. We had good talks. Surprisingly the same evening we met again in High Level. This time we shared our experiences and plans with some good glasses of red wine and good Swiss cheese. We are sure we meet again somewhere. Thank you for this nice evening Esther and Erich!

For the continuation of the tour report we want to cluster in now after the highways we travel. They all have this well known names and are so important for this part of Canada.

For continuation of travel report please refer the heading „Highways“