Last Camping Trip...!!

 

This weekend was definitely the last camping trip of the season.  We bailed out on family Thanksgiving Dinner to head out one last time.  We left the city Saturday morning and headed for Jasper.  The weather was nice... warm with a mix of sun and cloud.  I was really tired from a lack of sleep during the week so we took our time getting to Jasper, and made a number of rest stops along the way.  When we finally arrived the girls wanted to go shopping.  So, I took a short nap and the girls hit the souvenir shops.  After they ran out of money, they came back to the trailer and woke me up.  We headed over to Earls for a nice dinner.  The girls got their first taste of Calamari... which grossed out Hailey, but Annelise thought it was pretty good.  After dinner we headed out to the Whistlers Campsite where we had a spot reserved.  It was already dark when we checked in and settled down for the night.  It showered through the night and when we awoke it was  still overcast and drizzling.  After a pancake breakfast we set off down the Icefields Parkway.  The Park was busy, but nothing like the summer months.  It was overcast and cool and showered most of the day.  We made a brief stop at Tangle Falls to take some photos and explore.  Then we continued to the campsite at Wilcox Creek, just beyond the Columbia Icefields.  This campsite is near the treeline, and the temperature was noticeably cooler.  We took a brief walk in the afternoon in the drizzle and then retired to the trailer to make Thanksgiving Dinner.  The oven in our trailer is not big enough for a turkey so we settled for Prime Rib Roast, steamed potatoes, corn, gravy and salad.  This will be a Thanksgiving that I always remember.  When we awoke the next morning it was cold, and there was a skiff of snow on the ground.  The furnace in our trailer ran nearly continuously through the night so this is what I expected.  But the morning dawned clear and sunny and it soon warmed up, relatively speaking.  After breakfast we packed up and continued down the Icefields Parkway into Banff National Park.  We stopped briefly by Cirrus Mountain to take some photos and then continued to Saskatchewan Crossing.  We eventually stopped for lunch at the Kootenay Plains.  It was sunny and pleasant but pretty windy.  We enjoyed a walk together, had some lunch, and then eventually hit the road for home.  We arrived back in the city after dark, at around 8:00PM.  After this weekend we will winterize the trailer and put it away for the season.  But... I'm already anxious to get out again in the spring.  I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with some day trips until the spring arrives....