It was an epic and memorable trip in May’17, which was originally intended for WL and her friend CY to attend their friend’s wedding in Vancouver. It eventually panned out to be a partial road trip for the 3 of us, and then slowly evolved to be an activities-filled 16-day YOLO trip. Follow the entries to read about the daily happenings!
Day 7: Driving from Clearwater to Jasper
We finally woke up to electricity the next morning, but it doesn't really matter as we were leaving after breakfast. We had initially planned to visit Wells Gray Provincial Park and the popular Helmcken Falls, but was told by the receptionist that some of the roads inside might be closed following the massive storm the night before.
Not wanting to risk a wasted drive up into Wells Gray and end up reaching Jasper late, we decided to drive towards Jasper, with the intention to make a stop at Mount Robson Provincial Park, where we could probably hike.
It wasn't too long a drive when we reached Blue River. Initially we had just wanted a quick toilet break, as we saw there's a river safari facility here. There would definitely be a toilet here, we thought. We went into the facility, and ended up spending 2 hours here and a total of S$320 poorer. That's because we were attracted to the idea of being able to see some wildlife (read: BEARs!) here. Of course, there's no guarantee that the river safari trip will surely involve bear sightings, but it seemed that the probability was high. Plus, we didn't want to leave Canada without seeing any bears.
Off we went, on board a motor boat that could sit around 15 people. Tim, the guide from New Zealand, was so knowledgeable and passionate about bears, that I went TripAdvisor to write a review for him. Over the one-hour river tour, he furnished us with heaps of information about bears and other wildlife, and cautioned us to be dead quiet when we neared the river coastline, so as to increase the chances of seeing bears.
And we were lucky! Not only did we see young bears chasing one another along the river coastline amidst the bushes, we also caught at least 2 bears atop trees. That was when I learnt that bears could climb trees! At a distance on the boat, we also saw one bear slowly climbing down from the tree, and then another going up. Tim mentioned that we were one lucky boat of tourists to catch so much 'action'. Was the $104/pax boat tour worth it? I'd think so, to make sure that you get to see some real wild bears in Canada. Just that we didn't know that we would eventually see more wild bears. Read on for that!
Having done with the River Safari tour, we were 2 hours behind, and so practically just headed straight to Mount Robson Provincial Park. It was around 5:45pm local time, and the park was deserted. The map on the board showed a trail that was about 7km one-way, to reach Kinney Lake. We figured it would take at least an hour of trekking to reach the lake, and then another hour back, which would just be time when the sun set.
The trek started well, with good river views and a relatively easy trek. We were still energetic of course, but soon we had used some energy taking photos, laughing, talking, and joking about seeing a bear here in the woods. We reached Kinney Lake at about 7pm. It was a gorgeous lake, hidden among the woods and the peaks, and very quiet. Wary about the time, we only spent 5 minutes here, before having to turn back.
Walking back, we tried to hasten our footsteps, so we could make it back out of the woods by 8pm. I was preoccupied with looking at my Google map to see if we're on a good pace, when suddenly the 2 girls in front of me froze.
I looked up. I froze too.
200 metres away, a huge fully-grown bear was in front of us, right on the path of the trail. It saw the 3 of us and got startled as well. The next few seconds felt like eternity. We were worried that it might come at us. It didn't help that we didn't know what to do too. Thankfully, the startled bear turned around, and bolted off in the opposite direction.
Recovering from our own shock, we decided to walk slowly and carefully, towards where the bear stood, and along the path where it ran and disappeared. This was the only path in this trail, so we had to cover the same route as it did. We didn't see it anymore, so it must have ran into the woods. Recalling what Tim said earlier in the afternoon about "keeping quiet to spot bears", we had to do the opposite -- stomping our feet and talking out loud, to show that we were here. Bears are naturally solitary mammals and they would generally avoid humans. So it must be a good strategy.
We reached our car at the end of the trail eventually by 8pm. The experience was indescribable. On hindsight, I personally thought that the huge adult bear was cute.
We drove all the way to Jasper safely, and it was pretty late. We really loved the accommodation, but it was too short for us to enjoy. We didn't even have the chance to savour the owner's own restaurant (it was closed by the time we reached), nor even have the chance to meet the owner at all.
