This morning I dropped mom off at the airport in Calgary and she is now back home in (much warmer) Southern California. We spent most of her last week with me in and around Jasper National Park in Alberta. As has been the norm for the past 6 weeks, the weather was less than spectacular with clouds and rain. The first wildlife we encountered was a small herd of Bighorn Sheep down by the highway not far from the east entrance. Several ewes and a few lambs were hanging out in a pullout until some idiot honked his horn (apparently unhappy that people were slowing down/stopping to look – like this would be unexpected in a national park?) which caused them to scurry across the highway in front of oncoming traffic.

The mountains of the Canadian Rockies are beautiful to say the least and quite different in appearance (in my opinion) than the portion of the chain south of the border. This is an image of the north face of Mount Edith Cavell, taken in a rare moment with a little blue sky. Named for a World War I era British nurse, her’s is an interesting story you can read here. There are 3 glaciers on this face of the mountain: Angel Glacier is just visible at right center, Ghost Glacier is very small and is almost perfectly placed in the center of this image, with Cavell Glacier is all but hidden by the two ridges in the foreground.

I had read online that Elk were a common sight at the Whistlers Campground though had to listen to mom make her disappointment known that they were not in our section. At least until the last day we were there when a rather large bull showed up right outside my trailer while I was in town running an errand. He’d moved on by the time I returned but was still close by. The trailer in the background was two spaces over from mine. Of course in putting together a collection of photos from the last 6 weeks for her I had to include photos of “her” elk.

We had hoped to put in a little time visiting the Banff and Lake Louise areas but the weather put a stop to that. This is an “aim and shoot out the front window” picture I took as we were crossing Bow Pass Wednesday in Banff. We’d hit a little snow along the Icefield Parkway near the visitor center but then it starting getting serious a few kilometers down the highway. Once we dropped in elevation a little it turned back to rain and that is what we endured all day yesterday in Calgary when we would have preferred a little more sightseeing. Roxie and I are now in Edmonton where I plan to lay low for a couple of days. Next week has Elk Island National Park (east of Edmonton) on the schedule followed by a return next weekend to Jasper. I should be back in the “Lower 48” around the end of the month.