LA-Albq-KC-Chicago-Winnipeg-Calgary-Boise-LA WVO Roadtrip - Page 2

nick · #11 07-05-2010, 07:06 PM

Lloydmeister, AB. 205885. 8:12pm Sun.
Added 1 cube. Some intense Chinese food. If you are Lloydmeister, stay away from the “Golden Star” restaurant on the Yellowhead. The buffet was $15 and it had several items I’ve never heard of. One group of customers actually came in when we were there, and then they looked at the buffet and walked out. Too bad we didn’t think of that. That’s the second Canadian-Chinese fusion we had that was a bust. Same goes for the Chinese food in Wawa.

A lake near Vermillion, AB.
The landscape is scattered with dozens of lakes. I suppose all this would have been converted to lakefront property if it had been located in Michigan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota. But in Canada, it’s just another lake. Crazy.

Edson, AB. 206165. 10:23am Sun.
Added 1.5 cubes. Nice hotel-we stayed in the Park A Motel. Finally we found a nice place to stay. It was clean, large, and not scary as hell. It’s right off the main drag as you roll into town, so waste your time (like we did) driving around comparing prices. You won’t find a better deal.
The road from Lloydmeister to Edson was clouding up. By the time we roll into Edmonton, the rain was coming down hard. Another major storm on the trip.

I was able to capture a nearby lightning bolt:

East of Edson was probably the highest latitude that we drove thru. (53.6°)

nick · #12 07-05-2010, 07:32 PM

Hwy 93, near Jasper Nat’l Park at the Kootenay Crossing, BC. 206408. 9:11pm Sun.
Added 1.5 cubes. Finally! Something other than prairie!

Jasper Nat’l Park from a distance:

Entrance into the park is $19 Canadian. I guess that’s the cost of viewing the last glacier below the Arctic Circle.

The mountains are pretty amazing. We couldn’t stop through Jasper on the 2008 Veggie trip from LA to Fairbanks and back. It was originally on the itinerary, but had to be cut because it is avoided by the Alcan Highway and the route from Prince George to Vancouver. Now it's on this trip and it was never on this itinerary.

The park is quite full of wildlife. Saw a black bear, some mountain goats, and dozens of deer.

Part of the reason we went to Jasper was because of the wash out at Medicine Hat. But another driving force was the visitor’s center in Manitoba. They told us to head west on the Yellowhead, and then handed us a magazine detailing the whole highway. The cover had a cable-car. Maybe it was the hours of driving over farm land that inspired us to head toward Jasper Park. Here’s the cab.

At the top of the route, there are trails to the top of the mountain. You have great views of the city of Jasper, the Canadian Rockies, and huge valleys.

And:

We climbed to the top. I figured it would be packed with travelers, but luckily, most people stayed near the cable car, gift shop, and restaurant. After 30 minutes of hiking, this was probably the highest elevation for the trip: 8103ft.

We grabbed some grub at the mountain top restaurant. It actually wasn’t that expensive. Get the catch of the day.

Heading south on the Hwy 93 in Jasper Nat’l Park.
There’s a great lesson on global warming near the south end of the park. Visit the Icefield Glacier. They put up posts that indicate the location of the glacier over the last one-hundred years. The ice was originally up to the roadway, but now it’s hundreds of meters receded.