Why you should visit Jasper Alberta, Part 2

Keep your sense of proportion by regularly, preferably daily,visiting the natural world.

                           - Catlin Matthews

After your brief respite, I am back....


One of the highlights of our trip to Jasper was a trip up the Jasper Skytram.

I'm not going to lie to you here - I am not a huge fan of heights.  But I really, really wanted to go up to the top and see the view.

I am glad that I did.  But lordy, lordy, it was high!!!  About 7400 feet high.

But oh-so-amazing....

looking upwards you think "why that's hardly high at all..."
You are wrong...

Barry didn't enjoy the tram ride, though I didn't mind a bit...
This is only about halfway up.

No, it was at the top where, as the people of my corner of the world like to say, the arse dropped out of 'er.  Kidding, sort of.....

My brother and I again.
Look how happy he is.
He would have skipped the hour and a half further up to the peak
He would have skipped alone.
As you can see - still bundled and frozen!

What a view!

 

Barry and I "pretending" to be scared at the top.

The thing about being so high up is the great mixture of insignificance and connection you feel.  You are a small thing on a massive thing which is almost as old as time and which itself is dwarfed by other massive things.

And yet, you feel as glad as can be to be a part of it, to look out into the grand world and think: we worry about a lot of silly things when really, it is taking care of these things, these things that give us our water and life, that we ought to really worry about.

I live surrounded by forest and water.  But it is out here, surrounded by the majestic grandeur of all of this, where you really feel true awe.  And I could really, truly understand why my brother would want to live in such an amazing place.  Who wouldn't?

Tomorrow we are going to visit some falls, and then maybe go do something that has been on my bucket list since grade 5 social studies with Mrs. Garnett of St. Stephen Elementary School fame!

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ― Albert Einstein

Have a safe day out there! xoxo wendy