[You may view a map of Jasper National Park in PDF format.]

I got out of bed before J and pussyfooted around the RV. There was a faint odor of forest-fire smoke in the RV. :( Did some computer work. After J got out of bed, I had my normal breakfast. Had my coffee at the dinette while chatting w/J who was sipping her tea. Prepped the RV to move. We left at 9:40 and headed south along Alberta-40.

We went by some beautiful hillsides of mostly evergreens but some scattered deciduous trees starting to turn yellow.

We stopped at 11:22 to check the right-rear lug nuts, and they were all tight. We got back underway at 11:30.

As we approached the turn near Hinton, J got a text message on her phone from her brother R in which he told J to check her email about her cousin-in-law G (CilG). CilG had been battling lymphoma for about a year, and had recently gone back into the hospital, so the short message was grim and J was quite sad.

We entered Jasper National Park at 12:07 and bought an annual Parks Canada pass.

We stopped around 12:20 because a long line of bighorn sheep was heading down the hill towards the road. By the time we were ready to photograph them, they were down in the grass by the side of the road. It was a group of about 12 ewes and lambs. The setting wasn't too interesting, but the lambs were cute. One usually tries to avoid getting "butt shots," but the image to the left of the two lambs, with one looking over its shoulder, is a good way to "break the rule." We left at 1:31.

We went by another group of 20 or so bighorns just down the road.

We stopped to photograph two not-too-cooperative coyotes hunting together in a meadow near the airport. There was some blowing dust and lots of heat waves, so the images I took weren't worth keeping. We left at 1:58.

We drove by a large bull elk in bad light, then another large bull elk with a harem just down the road.
We went to the Petro Canada (gas station) in Jasper townsite to get propane for the RV. After we got propane, we filled up the RV with gas ($0.979/l), and I cleaned the windows on the RV and the Jeep.

We reached Whistler's Campground at 2:39, and registered for three nights in a site with no hookups. On the way to our site, we stopped to dump. After dumping, we drained some of the chlorine-laden water from our fresh water tank while soaking up some good solar energy before taking on fresh water. We also took advantage of the good signal on J's Verizon USB stick to go online. J checked her email, and got the news that CilG had died early this morning. After we finished taking on water, I decided to unhook the Jeep here instead of towing it to our site and unhooking it there because we wouldn't be blocking any traffic here and we might near our site. J couldn't get the Jeep to start, so we jumped it using the Husky emergency battery.

We reached Site J63 and were level by about 4:10. We left at 4:57 in the Jeep and headed back northeast to look for elk.

We stopped at 5:15 for a bull elk with a harem. Unfortunately, they were heading into the woods by the time we were ready to photograph them. So, we focussed our attention to the large bull elk across the road. After a while, the bull elk and harem started coming back out of the woods, then they crossed the road and flushed out the bull elk that had been in the nice grassy meadow. It was perfect because now we had the bigger elk in a much better setting than he had been in when we first stopped. In the image to the left, the bull elk is starting his strutting run before going over to the females to see if one was ready to mate. None were, but he kept trying. :) We left at 6:53 because the light was starting to get low as the sun had set over the nearby mountain.

We stopped at a bunch of stopped cars by the road and watched another large bull elk with a harem. They were down a hill from the road and the light wasn't too good, so we just watched for a while before leaving.
We returned to the RV at 7:22 and I started the small portable gas grill. I downloaded the images I took today, then did a quick edit in iView. When I went outside to put the salmon on the grill, I discovered that the propane bottle had run out and the grill was still cold. :( I put a new propane bottle on the grill, and started to pre-heat the grill again.

We had dinner around 8:00 of grilled capered salmon with Alaskan silver salmon from L&S. J had spilled more cyan pepper in the sauce than was called for, but the mistake made the good sauce even better. :) The fish was absolutely delicious, and went well with the rice pilaf and green beans that J had prepared.

J showered as I put away the grill and started the dishes. I took a body shower. Had some Asbach Uralt while editing the images I took today.