We left Slave Lake at 7:30am this morning, the car packed with camping supplies, to began our drive to Jasper. I’m not a fan of driving and when I drive I need to take breaks which makes getting to places far away take longer. We first stopped in Swan Hills for a bathroom break. It was a pretty sad looking town. It felt like it was a dying town, which we later confirmed was. Ready to get out of there we drove straight to Whitecourt.
Whitecourt opened a big recreation centre. I hadn’t swam since Edmonton and my muscles needed it to stretch from the day of driving. The facility was huge, with a state-of-the-art gym, with all the latest equipment. The pool was completely empty which makes me a happy swimmer! There was a climbing wall in the deep end which made the end of the swim kind of fun. I’ve never seen that before.
After getting groceries and butane for the cooking stove we set off again. We continued to drive and next stopped in Edson for a bathroom break and stretch and then by 5:00 we were approaching Hinton. Both of us didn’t want to drive in another hour (plus) to Jasper so we’re camping just outside of Hinton. The view of Jasper is clear and getting us excited for tomorrow, when we’ll finally be in the park!