Day 3 Kamloops to Jasper

 Max 17 August temp in Jasper (~53N and 5000' was 81F). Max at National Airport was 85F.

We follow the North Thompson River almost all the way to Jasper.  First image shows the river as we crossed it at one point. The aqua color is partly due to fine dust formed by glaciers at the source of the river and partly due to silt it picked up on the way.  If there were no silt, it would be more blue.

One of the sad things along this trip was how much of the Thompson plateau had been marred by a massive fire about 20 years earlier. The fire was a linear only burning one side of a hill but it went on for what seems like 10 miles or so.  Second image shows the current situation where some of the burnt trees are still standing and the vegetation is slowly healing. The plateau, near where the fire was, only gets about 10-15" of rain. Click to enlarge so you can see the burn problem.

There were some magnificent sights along the way. One was a waterfall called pyramid falls. Image 3 shows this.  It is about 300' from the top to the bottom of this waterfall.  At this point the elevation has increased enough so that the area is much less dry.

Another fabulous sight is Mount Robson. This mountain is about 13k feet high. It is the highest in the Canadian Rockies (Canada has other mountains that are higher further west in the cascade range).  Mt. Robson is tall enough that it is almost always in the clouds.  We saw it on an unusually clear day.  My image (you can tell it is mine because I got a bit on Ann in the image) is less cloudy than the one they have for this mountain in Wikipedia.

A final fabulous sight is 12k foot Mount Edith Cavell over one of the lakes (I think it is Moose lake but I can't remember). This lake has a lot of glacial dust in it and is quite blue.

Edith Cavell was a nurse in WWI.  She was executed at the age of 49 by the Germans for helping British soldiers escape to allied occupied territory.

 

We also passed the site where the Canada Trans Mountain pipeline is under construction.  Development of this pipeline was was begun by various private companies but the companies were stopped by lawsuits. Canada took over the project itself.  When/if completed, it would vastly increase the amount of oil that Alberta is able to export to the Pacific Coast.

\\.