Stewart to Jasper 4th - 5th August

We left Stewart in yet more rain for the two day journey to Jasper National Park. We stopped at a First Nation village to see some totem poles.

 The church and the church tower in the First Nation village.

The iconography didn't mean a lot until we stopped later at the Ksan Historical Village which is a collection of different tribal houses, totem poles and museum all rolled into one.

We also stopped at Moricetown to see a fish ladder and Colin had a close look at the upstream end of the ladder which helps salmon get through the gorge to their spawning grounds.

We went through Smithers and just afterwards Burns Lake before reaching Francoise Lake. It had stopped rainng but the ground was wet and it was still overcast. We were also in for a treat as the camp ground owner had enough freshly caught trout for the whole group...great for those of us who like fish but the non fish eaters had an alternative meal cooked for them.

The road paralleled a railway line and partly to pass the time, I was counting railway wagons when freight trains came past. I upped my maximum length to 190 wagons pulled by two locos which considering that these double stacked containers were 45 or 48 feet long plus 8 to 11 feet of space at either end makes for a very long train.

The mountains around us got higher as we progressed along the road until we reached Jasper National Park and found our pitches in the largest camp site I have ever seen providing for 781 sites each capable of holding a car or RV plus two tents and plenty of trees between sites. And our turn to cook again in the rain.