while
traveling you find a place in nature that is almost beyond
description. The Jasper National Park area is one of those
places. We had debated for sometime as to whether we should go to
Banff or Jasper, but most of the people we met said that Banff
had become very much a tourist trap and that Jasper had remained
more natural. Armed with this knowledge, off we went to Jasper.
Going up the east side of the Canadian Rockies is an experience.
Although they are not particularly high, some do go up over 6000
feet. Their craggy, sharp peaks above the tree line make a
formidable impression. As we approached the Park the first thing
we saw was a family of mountain goats out for a noonday stroll.
Only in their case the noonday stroll was up an almost vertical
rock face. It was interesting to watch the male walk his own way,
but the baby followed Mama step for step. Guess he was old enough
to learn that if he
didn't he was going to fall down the
hill. Gee, wouldn't it be nice if we could convince our human
kids of that? Of course, I'm sure just like the humans when the
kid gets old enough to decide he knows it all, then he'll go his
own way too. A little further down the road we encountered the Park booth. Just as in the US, to enter a National Park in Canada you must have a pass. You can buy a day pass for $10 a day (just to drive through), or a yearly pass for $70 a year ($53 for seniors). Since we intended to be in Canada for a while we decided the yearly pass was the best deal. After we left the toll booth we entered the town of Jasper. It seemed kind of strange to have a town smack dab in the middle
of a National Park but quickly
learned the reason behind the existence of the town. The town was
originally settled by a few adventurers who named it Fitzhugh. In
1911 the first locomotive steamed into Fitzhugh, and life in the
town, which was renamed Jasper in 1913, changed forever. Within a
few years, Jasper would evolve from a town of tarpaper and canvas
shacks into a permanent community. The town today is a thriving
tourist Mecca attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists a
year. I don't think we visited another area in Canada (or
anywhere else for that matter) that had as many rental RVs as I
saw in Jasper. Along with every RV of every description you can
imagine were tourists who spoke every language you can think of.
There are several campgrounds in the area, but unfortunately they
are all run by the Canadian government. What that means is, if
you don't like something you can't go to the competition. I found
out from prior checking that you couldn't make reservations at
either of the campgrounds that have hookups ahead of time, it's
on a first come first served basis. So, after a trip of some
distance we arrived at Whistlers Campground, one of two with
electric, around 5 in the evening only to be informed
that there were no campsites left, not even dry
camping sites for a rig our size. We were directed to Wapiti
Campground just down the road for a dry site for the night and
then to come back in the morning and join the rest of the people,
sitting on a u shaped bench in front of the check in stand,
waiting for campers to check out. Not being set up for dry
camping, we did some fast arranging of water and lanterns and
settled in for an early night. The next morning, bright and early
at 7:00 we were up and away in the truck, having dropped the
trailer in our temporary home. The 2 hour wait was actually fun
as the second person to arrive was from Barcelona Spain and
talked about life in Europe which kept us entertained. While Bob
enjoyed his self-appointed role as "line entertainer" I
dashed off to town and returned with the famous McDonald
Breakfast. If I had thought ahead of time, I probably could have
bought extras and sold them to the other people waiting in line.
Sure, the park probably would have wanted a percentage. By the
time it was our turn to register there must have been a dozen or 
so
people on the bench waiting their turn. While registering, we got
our second surprise, To help control pollution, full service
sites were not permitted fires. We could have electric only with
a fire ring or full service with no fire, but not both. Now the
electric site was of course cheaper than the full service, but to
our surprise, there is a $4 fire permit needed for each night you
are going to build a campfire. Now that was a new one on us. The
permit did come with privileges at the local wood pile, still a
most interesting arrangement. We took an electric only with fire
permit for one day and moved into the back end of the campground.
The sites are wide apart and positioned in an Aspen stand. It
came with its own resident Elk cow and her calf, that wandered
around the campsite eating the prevailing grasses in the somewhat
manicured area. 
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