Another great free campsite!

Said goodbye to my Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa, and hope to see them again somewhere in the world! They were talking about going to Newfoundland and renting an RV, so maybe they'll do that while we are there next summer. That would be fun.

We took off on the Yellowhead Highway #16, heading southeast towards Jasper National Park.

Here is yesterday's drive...

162 kms (100 miles).

Along the way, we stopped at the Ancient Forest. The old Western Red Cedar trees in this forest were only discovered in 2005 when the area was scheduled for logging. It's now a Provincial Park day use area.

Some of these trees are over 1,000 years old.

It's a beautiful forest!

The ground cover around these roots has been worn away by people going up to the tree to get photos of themselves, so they have fenced it off.

When a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around, does it make a noise?

I bet this one did!

The Arms of a Giant.

You'll have to click the photo to make it full screen so you can read the plaque.

Can you see Ruth's head at the bottom left of the big tree?

We continued on to the Lasalle Recreation Area. It's a local park that I had read only has 4 or 5 campsites, and we thought they might all be occupied. After all, they are free! When we got there, it's a narrow road and fairly steep down to the lake. So Ruth stayed with Sherman up by the highway and I walked down first. 

When I got to the campsites, there were three empty sites, but only one of which would be suitable for Sherman. I walked back up the hill and got Ruth and Sherman. As I was pulling down the narrow road, a minivan also pulled off the highway, and I motioned for him to go first which he did.

Then I thought.... what if he takes my spot!?

And sure enough, we got to the bottom, and he was parked in the spot that I had scoped out.

I got out and explained that I had just finished walking down, and that he would easily fit into one of the other sites, whereas we would not. He moved, but didn't look real happy about it. Oh well!

Sherman, parked at GPS 53.523513, -120.679987

Had to do a bit of work to get Sherman level!

There were three other rigs here already. A big class A motorhome with a fantastic site right by the water, a pickup truck camper, and a big German unimog style vehicle. We walked down a side road to find that there were another dozen or so campsites down that way! So it turned out there was lots of room for us, although it had pretty much filled up by dusk.

What a beautiful spot!

Notice that it was not very smokey in this area yesterday.

We have never seen so many tadpoles!

Some of them are turning into tiny frogs already.

The campground at dusk.

We're going to take the kayak out for spin this morning before we leave here!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice price drop on the Heininger Portable Propane Firepit...

Heininger Portable Propane Firepit

And in Canada...

A great deal on the Brother Wireless Printer