ok, so i'll pick up where michael left off.

we left drumheller wednesday morning and headed for calgary. we had a couple of hours left of driving through the plains. it all looks like this:





pretty, but empty as you can see. as were getting closer to calgary, we could see the rockies in the distance. finally! a change of scenery.



we drove through the center of town and past the olympic park. on the far side of the city, we started getting into the mountains.

we got into banff national park early in the afternoon. the town itself looks like a little swiss alpine village.



about halfway through the park, we got onto the icefieds parkway. the parkway follows the rocky mountains north to jasper national park. we got so many amazing pictures, but here's a few:








we saw some animals; elk, deer, some birds. but also, this guy and a couple of his friends.



after jasper, we headed back east a bit to see our friends jordan and dallas. they let us stay at their place in edmonton (thanks again!). they took us for some awesome breakfast at the cafe where they both work. i had just been telling michael how much i wanted some tofu scramble and the scramble at this place was great!




after edmonton, we headed back into the northwest. we got onto the alaska highway in dawson creek, BC in the early evening and spent the night in fort st. john. this morning, we got up and drove back through the rockies to watson lake. we saw a TON of animals today! deer, caribou (!), stone sheep, birds, possibly a grizzly bear (it could have been a brown black bear, we were already going by it when we saw it and we couldn't stop to take a picture, so there's no way for me to really identify it), black bear (one was up in a tree!), buffalo (with a baby!), a fox, some farm goats, and a couple of dogs.








tomorrow morning, we're going to head over to the signpost forest, which is across the street. we should get into alaska sometime tomorrow and we should be in fairbanks by sunday!!!