Washout on the Icefield Parkway

Location: Pocahontas Campground, Jasper National Park, Canada

It rained hard all night and didn't let up this morning. We decided to push on and head north to Jasper National Park regardless. We knew that the rain and clouds would mar a lot of the spectacular views on the Icefield Parkway, but were hoping for another viewing on our return trip to Lake Louise. This part of Banff is famous for their wildlife, particularly bears. We didn't know if the wet weather would keep the bears under cover. Much to our surprise we spotted a bear not too far into the drive. He was hanging out, in the rain, munching on vegetation. Fortunately, I was able to catch a picture without having to leave the car. (I was scared). This area is a natural wildlife migration path. Unfortunately the parkway goes right through it. The solution was to build a really cool migration overpass, complete with natural landscaping, so that the bears wouldn't get killed crossing the road. See picture below.
When we were in Calgary on the paddle boat at Heritage Park we learned that the reservoir was extremely low because they were anticipating huge runoff from the upcoming storm. The reservoir is fed by the Bow River which originates in this part of the park. About an hour into the drive we noticed the river rising as runoff from creeks and streams was gushing down the mountains in muddy torrents. At one point our road was submerged and covered with debris. Yep, I got a picture of that too. We made it to about the half way point at Saskatchewan Crossing and decided it was a good time to stop and have a cup of hot soup. No sooner had we started again, when a quarter mile up the road the rangers were turning everyone back because the Icefield Parkway was flooded and covered in debris. Mmmm. We really didn't have a lot of options at this point. We could either head back for Lake Louise and hang out there for another day or head East and try a round about way to get to Jasper. The round about route would take about 7 hours. Yeah, we did that one. We learned later that the road back to Lake Louise was also closed. Don't really know what our options would have been at that point.
So, after a really long day driving in torrential rain seeing a lot of hard scrapple mining and oil towns, (Rocky Mountain House, Drayton Valley, Hinton) we finally made it to the very Eastern edge of Jasper Park. The campground we stayed at last night was completely surrounded by an electrical fence to keep the bears out. Tonight we are on our own. (Lisa, I'm definitely not leaving the BBQ grill out tonight!) And guess who is accompanying me to the bathroom whenever nature calls?! The good news is that even though it's currently rainy and heavy cloud cover at 10 pm, it's still very bright out. So weird to go to bed before sunset.
Miette Hot Springs is just up the road a couple of kilometers so guess what our plan is tomorrow. Heck, let it rain. The Icefield Parkway is still closed and we have no idea when it will open. We figure we're not going to drive around again so we'll wait it out in Jasper. Hopefully, the storm will abate soon and we will be able to enjoy the drive back to Lake Louise. Depending on how long we are holed up we'll plan our route back to the USA accordingly.