Day 18

Not a long trip today which is nice, about 2 and a half hours driving to Jasper National Park, we pre booked into a hotel last night for 2 nights because it was looking like the hotels were getting booked up and it was the weekend so we settled on the Tonquin Inn which was a bit of a gamble because it looked quite old and the reviews on Trip adviser were mixed so we had no idea what to expect.

Anyway after a drive that saw the scenery change gradually as we got closer to Jasper. We arrived in time for lunch, we checked into the hotel first and was pleased that our rooms were available, the location was perfect and the only real problem so far was the weather, yes you’ve guessed it, the skies were not helping us with the views that were knew were out there, the smoke from all the fires in BC had blocked out all the sunlight and was causing a white out. Anyway the sun was there and trying to get through, which on occasion did and revealed fantastic sights, we were hoping that it would actually rain and wash the smoke away. We had lunch in “Earls” in Jasper which was great and had a little walk around town and then decided to take a drive to Maligne Canyon despite the weather darkening, for a while it was great and we got a few shots and had a walk down 2 levels before the skies blackened and we thought lets get the heck outta here, so we walked briskly back to the car just in time before the skies opened, we didn’t go straight back to the hotel, we drove to the rest of the walk to see what we missed. It is such a shame about the weather because the scenery is just perfect, there was a family at the base setting up a fire for a riverside BBQ and the kids were not put off by the torrents of rain, we on the other hand watched form the car. Ken did briefly get out to take some photos and I used my tele lens to capture the family persevering despite the odds being against them, it was lovely to see though.
All feeling rather disappointed we thought there was nothing left to do than go back to the hotel park up the car and hit the bar, it was about 4 ish and we ended up staying in there for about 4 hours. We had dinner in the bar and actually had a good time, although I am sure the beers helped.
Suitably fed and watered we hit the sack. Now this is where the day slides into a disastrous ending. Next door to us was someone who had the TV on really loud, and at about 2:00am Lorna had enough and banged on the wall, which is paper thin, but nothing, so she then went to the door and banged on that, I mean really banged, still nothing, so thinking that they had gone out and left the TV on she called the front desk and they sent up security and they banged on the door and called the phone in the room, this went on for over 35 minutes, we were both convinced that there was nobody in and then we heard someone answer the door. Can you believe it, a guy had slept through everything, he eventually turned off the TV but we were so awake by now and could not get back to sleep, so we both had a terrible night, we really hope he checks out tomorrow or there could be some trouble.