8 30 10 Jasper, Alberta, Canada-- worth the very, very, very long and tedious drive

After four, usually 12 hour days of tedious driving we hit Jasper with a bang.  Oh my gosh. The drive into Jasper from the north is, I believe, one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.  It rivals the view from Glacier Point, Yosemite. But the entire park is almost as beautiful as Glacier Point. And, as with Glacier Point, there is no way to capture it with camera.  We should be using more video, and I see there's a way here to post video here, but the photos will be better for our final book of this trip.

We took forever to get to our hotel in Jasper because we couldn't stop taking pictures, even before we entered the park.  In fact, I think the best views were coming into the park, rather than being in it.  So we got to Jasper at 5:30 and got to our hotel after 10;00.  We also stopped to see some mountain goats along the road.  Jasper is 360 degrees mountains, glacial valleys and torquoise blue lakes.

 My photos are SOO inadequate.  I do have some advice. (What else is new?) I believe everyone should drive at least once across our beautiful and vast country because the trip somehow stays with you forever and you come home with a new sense about yourself and, of course, our country..  But if you have already crossed the US and visited our fantastic national parks and seen the beauty back East, I HIGHLY recommend that you just concentrate on the West, including Jasper, Banff and the other four national parks that are right here in Canada---- and then return by the US West coast, for beautiful coastal scenery if you want coastal beauty as part of your trip.  In my opinion, there is nothing we have in the East that compares, and I come from beautiful PA. Maybe I am prejudiced about majestic mountains, but that's my opinion after spending a month traveling across the US and Eastern and Central Canada.  Actually, Sandra and I have both traveled across the US several times and we both have a strong preference for the West.  I met someone else here who said he has traveled all over the world and this is his favorite place.  I concer.  Maybe it's because this is where I am at the moment, so maybe I should wait and see how I feel about the entire trip after I get home and see what stays with me.  Here are just a few of the many photos of Jasper before even entering the park. Photos don't begin to do it justice.  Neither of us has captured the vivid colors--including light blue lakes that are that color because they are glacial lakes and that's the color they reflect.