Jasper from above

Mountains are Jasper's calling card. Deep in the Alberta Rockies, peaks crown the horizon in every direction. The vast majority are pristine and will remain that way, preserved under the aegis of Canada's national parks system. The well camouflaged mountain sheep, bears, wolves, elk and mountain goats certainly do have a secure home here.

After spending 11 hours sat in seats 26 & 27 the now not so brightly chromed Greyhound rolled into a very cold and dark Jasper, but it was 6:20 in the morning.  Lucky though for us two and Eva, a Czech girl who was also heading in our direction, was the welcome sight of a taxi just pulling up at the bus compound as we unloaded our rucksacks from the bum numb-mobile. He deposited us at our wilderness hostel, which was positioned in the middle of a beautiful forest, where of course everyone was asleep.  We had to wait a few more hours for reception to open and then our room to be available.  This day was all about sitting and waiting.

To stretch out  our legs and un-numb the bums we took a easy stroll up to the Jasper Tramway.  Canada's highest and longest aerial tramway, and the only guided aerial ropeway in the Canadian Rockies. Unprecedented views of six mountain ranges, glacial fed lakes, the Athabasca river (Alberta’s longest) and the scenic J shaped mountain town of Jasper where a train was positioned at the main station. It's total length seemed to stretch the entire length of the village. We counted, roughly, 156 container carriages long plus 3 engines. That's around a kilometre in length for one train!

The tramway ride starts at an already impressive height of 1304 metres (4279 ft) above sea level in the safety of an enclosed Tram cabin. Travelling at 6 metres per second this 1960s twin wire tramway soon had us up top which was 2277 metres (7472 ft) above sea level.  The hiking trail at the top, across to India Point, was closed due to very heavy snow conditions which was a shame. I mean it's nearly May! If this snow does start melting soon it will be soon reloaded with next seasons.