Part 5 Johnston Canyon Resort to Jasper, AB

Day 5
After a really good dinner and a bottle of wine at the Johnston Canyon Lodge, not to mention a good night sleep with the windows open in the cool mountain air, We are ready to go again. Today first order of business is a hike up Johnston Canyon. The name sake is a glacier run off stream with a series of 7 or 8 waterfalls. We started early, and it was a good thing, by mid-morning the buses were bringing the tourist by the hundreds. We had the trail to ourselves in the early morning.


The water is the aqua blue

it just gets prettier the farther you go up. The trail is about 2.7 km (1.2 miles) each way and 120 meters (396 feet) in elevation gain

They have done quite a good job with trail building, using heavy metal attached to the side of the cliff walls

There are some very nice rock formations at the top falls

The upper falls are a double with a fine view from the top

In fact I found a nice place to perch and wait for my fellow bikers to catch up. As it turned out they never may it all the way up!

Johnston Canyon Lodge was a lovely place to stay. The cabins we had are the "A" side. This means one room but the showers were great and it was very quiet at night

each one has a large side with multiple rooms and a real wood burning fireplace and then an "A" side.

The "A" stands for After thought

My iron horse stands ready to go again

Driving south into the town of Banff for breakfast. What a great town. I would love to live at the foot of a moutain range.

The bikes parked outside of Melissa's Steakhouse. Don't be fooled by the name, this was a great place for breakfast.


After breakfast the plan was to start the ride north on Hwy 93 to Lake Moraine and then to Jasper, but we got sidetracked looking for a place where Viktor could get a new tire for his Valkyre. We had noticed the night before that the back tire was wearing very unevenly. The closest place for a new tire- Calgary!

We will be traveling through both the Banff National Forest (Alberta) and then transistion into the Jasper National Forest (Alberta)

The scenary doesn't wait. immediately the images are overwhelmingly beautiful

The peak here actually has "spindrift" wind blown snow off the summit

Looking to Banff National Park (above)

coming into Lake Moraine (above)

Mountains above Lake Moraine (above)
Lake Moraine (below)

Me posing for a picture at Lake Moraine. The water is that aqua blue of glacier water (photo by Kelli Shaw)

The Shaw clan and the whole group photo

We also made a friend while relaxing at Lake Moraine (photos by Kelli Shaw)

I enjoyed the beauty of the small as well as the large and the Canadian wildflowers were out in full force

Around 1 pm we started up Hwy 93 north toward Jasper. The highway is fairly straigt as it goes through a glacier valley. its a good thing it is straight as your attention is constanly drawn to the awesome scenery

Bow Lake (below)

some of the glaciers of the Columbia icefield (below)

The one that impresses you the most is the sheer number of trees.

always ready to ride (below)

220 miles and we arrive in Jasper. We stayed at the Sawridge Inn on the North end of town and had a very excellent meal ( chicken lasagna and a great Shiraz picked by Saundra) at the restaurant inside - Walter's