17th Day 06/08/2016 Mt. Whistler, Jasper - sunny

After waking up well-rested, we realized that it wasn't as cold as the previous nights. The sky outside was cloudy, but it was dry. We had a leisurely breakfast and thought about what we would do today. Spontaneously, the mountain across from our campsite came to mind, so we decided to visit the Mt. Whistler Lift Station. Without further ado, we drove the short distance to the lift station parking lot. It wasn't very crowded yet, and I skeptically looked at the clouds. Compared to earlier, there were significantly fewer clouds, and the mountain peak was clear. So, we decided to buy a family ticket for the lift up and hike down. We put on our hiking shoes and went to the counter. After a few Asian tourists, it was our turn, but we heard that they only had round-trip tickets or single tickets in reverse order, meaning going up by foot and coming down by lift. Quite clever... So, we bought round-trip tickets for the steep price of $105. Thankfully, Marie passed as a 15-year-old, otherwise, it would have been even more expensive. We had a nice ride up the mountain, with a great view of the wide valley, and we received some information from the lift operator.

Once we arrived at the top, we enjoyed the view of Jasper and the surroundings. Then we hiked another path to the summit, which involved overcoming over 300 meters in altitude. The tree line has already been surpassed here. The Whistler Peak is around 2500 meters high. Once at the top, you have a fantastic 360-degree view of the surrounding snow-covered mountains of the Rocky Mountain.

By the way, we also saw some very large marmots (they looked like our beavers), squirrels, and mountain grouses. From above, we also saw 2 very interesting lakes, Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake, which were nestled between smaller mountain hills. We spontaneously decided to visit them in the afternoon. The weather kept getting better and hot again.

After we arrived back at the base station, we replenished ourselves at the local Starbucks and then drove to the two mentioned lakes via Jasper. Upon arrival, we enjoyed the tranquility and scenery, refreshed ourselves in the clear mountain water, and observed the ducks.

On the way back, we restocked our supplies in Jasper and then returned to the Whistlers Campground.