We ended up staying three nights at Whistler’s Campground . Although it’s a huge place(781 sites!), it doesn’t feel that way at all. The campsites are arranged on loops of 12-20 sites and are large and forested. Our site was backed by a stream and some woods. While Steve was setting up camp, I took Ellie for a walk behind our site; we came upon a cow elk feeding near the trail. I don’t know who was more surprised—her or us—but she didn’t seem to mind us being there, and put calmly put her head back down to feed. I went back to the RV to get Steve and the camera, and she hadn’t moved. What a nice welcome! At the outdoor program that night (which was on bears, but paled in comparison to the Clark’s Nutcracker Suite), I asked the ranger guy about places to kayak, and he gave us several options. The next morning, we headed up to Pyramid Lake, a few miles outside the townsite of Jasper, to give it a try. The lake was another stunningly beautiful one, ringed with snowy mountains. As we launched the boats and started to paddle off, I spotted a mama loon and her two fuzzy brown chicks just floating out there, presumably having a swimming lesson. I was able to paddle up quite close and they didn’t seem to mind. Unfortunately, the camera was in Steve’s boat; he hadn’t seen them and had paddled off in a different direction. Darn! We paddled all around the lake, which took about two hours. At the far end was a little floating island “garden” of plants, about 6 feet square, obviously man-made. We couldn’t figure out what it was. That night, as I thanked the ranger for his recommendation and told him about the loon family, he said the “island” was set up as nesting habitat for loons, because their nests along the shore kept getting washed out. The loons seem to love it, and there is now a stable loon population on the lake.

The next day, we headed off for the ranger’s other recommendation—Maligne (pronounced Mah LEAN) Lake. This one was farther away—about 20 miles—up a beautiful narrow limestone canyon that followed the beautiful Maligne River and passed several more lakes. Maligne Lake is the largest and deepest lake in Jasper National Park—22 km long and 94 meters deep. It’s long and narrow and deep green-blue in color, and again, stunningly beautiful. There is a tour boat concession and picnic area at one end, but no trails along the shoreline; the only way to really see the lake is by tour boat, canoe, or kayak. There are about 8 primitive camp sites along the lake which are only accessible by canoe or kayak. The tour boats are the only motorized craft allowed on the lake, and there were amazingly polite, giving us a wide berth and slowing way way down to minimize waves. We had a nice two-hour paddle until the wind came up on the way back. It was tough paddling, and I got pretty wet with water running down my paddle onto my lap, since I hadn’t put on my spray skirt. The water in that lake is freezing cold, and I wads pretty well chilled by the time we reached shore. Even with warm, dry clothes and a hot shower, it took me the rest of the day to get warm.

This morning we left Jasper and headed off to Clearwater, BC. It’s a 5½ hour drive, but it seemed to go much faster because of the beautiful scenery. Once we left the park, we also left the most rugged of the peaks behind as well. However, they were replaced by lush green mountains, pretty mountain valleys and meadows carpeted with wildflowers in all colors, and wild and majestic rivers. We are now camped at the Clearwater Valley KOA and Resort. It’s the nicest KOA I’ve ever seen. The front part of the park is typical KOA—pool, store, gameroom, miniature golf, etc., although the campsites are large and shaded. We are camped in the back of the park on a secluded site surrounded by trees, ferns, and wildflowers. We’ll stay the night and then move on, although exactly where is somewhat in question. Turns out that Canada doesn’t yet carry the ultra low-sulphur diesel that our rig requires. The diesel they do have is hard on our engine and may cause damage that will not be covered under warranty. The bottom line is that we have to get out of Canada. We’ll be looking at the map and figuring out the shortest distance back to the States. Once there, we still have lots of options. Our vague plan is to head to Anacortes, and, if we can get reservations for one of the campgrounds in the San Juan Islands, to take the ferry over there and spend a few days kayaking. If we fill up with fuel at Anacortes, we theoretically could continue on the ferry to Victoria and do a little touring on Vancouver Island before taking the ferry back to Washington. Then we’d still have plenty of time to explore the Olympic Peninsula and the Cascades. Stay tuned.