I bade farewell to Marty and the group ride this morning. Saw a large puddle of oil under his bike. I hope that is not indicative of further problems. He has been leaking a small amount daily. The CB is packed up, the push-to-talk switch removed from the handlebars. No more Charlie's Greatest Hits on my airwaves!

I had a quick breakfast at a cafe in Jasper, fueled up, and headed down Highway 93 through Jasper National Park. Jasper was the first of three Canadian National Parks that I would visit today. Banff and Kootenay would round out a day in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These parks together form one of the largest protected areas in the world. The weather was bright and clear and the morning haze was starting to lift. Little did I know that I would be taking 115 pictures before the day was through.

On the way out of Jasper I saw a wineberry-colored ST1100 just like mine right down to the trunk. I hoped to run in to the couple later but I never saw it again. I soon came upon a goat jam alongside the road. As you can see, two of the goats appear to be eating gravel. Maybe that's like Grapenuts to them! The goats on the other side of the barrier look to be just relaxing and enjoying the morning just like me. After seeing the lush vegetation and readily-available water here in Jasper, one wonders what socio-economic issues those animals scraping out an existence in Denali have. They ought to all just move here!

The road soon turned into the Columbia Icefields Parkway. It had been pretty uncrowded up to that point, but by this time it was 11:00am and the tour buses and RVs were out in force. I decided to stop at the Athabasca Glacier. During my previous visit, Jane and I had taken a bus-like "Snocoach" onto the glacier. Not wanting to repeat that trip, I decided to just walk out as far as they would let you. It looked easy but a steep uphill climb at 6500' had me puffing heavily. I stopped several times to rest and take pictures. I sort of missed the cones marking the end of the trail onto the ice and, seeing someone else at the top, I kept on going for another several hundred feet.

This part of the glacier was melting and you can see the runoff in the crevasses in the pictures. It has that characteristic glacier blue color. I did not get far enough up to hit any of the blue ice. You'd have to take the Snocoach for that. I headed back down and then drove across the parkway to the Icefields Center. I had a cup of coffee and sat out in the sun. I got another tourist to take my picture.

I headed for Lake Louise. There are several of the gorgeous blue lakes along the way so I stopped several more times to take pictures. Just as I remembered, the Chateau and lake area (which is behind the Chateau) were very crowded. Buses were disgorging tourists by the hundreds. Probably 40% were Japanese. I need to look at our old photos when I get home but to me the glacier seemed noticeably smaller than five years ago. Glaciers are certainly receding worldwide but the one at Lake Louise looked anemic.

I wondered around the hotel and took some pictures. On our previous visit, we stayed at the Chateau for a night. They had Jane and me in a corner room on the seventh floor on the right-hand side of the hotel (as seen from the back). We had views of the lake, glacier, and out to the side. It was fantastic. I went by the lobby and since I hadn't had any lunch I decided to relive another memory from that trip. They were serving afternoon tea and I spent an hour drinking my tea, eating the tea sandwiches and (my favorite) scones with clotted cream while reading the paper.

It was time to move on. Rather than take the crowded Trans-Canada Highway towards Banff, I opted for the much-less traveled Bow Valley Parkway, another helpful memory of the past. I saw the train tracks along the Bow River and thought it would make a nice picture. As I was parking the bike, a guy across the road who had his camera out yelled, "Here comes a train!" I raced across the street without even taking my helmet off and got some good shots. We'd traveled those same tracks when going from Banff to Vancouver on the Rocky Mountaineer.

Farther down the Parkway, I just happened to spot a large elk on a side road into a campground. I pulled over and started to take pictures. Another car was already there trying to pull out of the campground. A park ranger patrol came along and told me that I'd have to move back even though I was on pavement. They said that you cannot be closer than 30m to any wildlife. I basically had all the pictures that I wanted so I moved on.

The Bow Valley Parkway ends a few miles north of Banff. From the look of the traffic streaming towards Banff and given that it was almost 5:00pm anyway, I decided to head towards my evening's destination, Radium Hot Springs. The town is to the west of Lake Louise in the Kootenay National Park. A good portion (over 12%) of Kootenay was scarred by fires last year.

I passed the actual Radium Hot Springs on the way in to the town. I figured that I would go back later in the evening after the crowds had cleared. And it was very warm at 6:00pm anyway (not a good omen for the upcoming days). However, once I got settled in the Cedar Motel, I decided to just skip a dip in the hot springs. It's really more of a spa like you would find in Napa Valley rather than just a simple park like Tom and I saw at Liard Hot Springs. The woman at the motel was so nice that she actually ran down to the room after I had parked to give me a piece of wood to put under my sidestand! I didn't really need it but it was certainly a nice gesture.

While I would not trade a minute of our trip to Alaska and the "thrill" of riding the Alaska Highway, I personally think that aside from the ocean vistas in Alaska, these parks offer more spectacular scenery per mile. And they do it with roads in great condition, no dust/dirt/mud, and no gravel! The parkways are not challenging motorcycle rides due to the gentle curves, moderate speed limits, and often heavy traffic. But the views and wildlife are top-notch and make the ride a total pleasure. The net is that I would love to come back and motorcycle the many roads here that I had to skip this time.