WHILE POACHERS POSE a problem in Canada's awesome Jasper National Park, families on a day's outing who only seek the pleasure of seeing wildlife are a greater threat. Motorists crash into about 120 animals, mostly elk and mountain sheep, each season.
So why, I ask Jack Dexter, a park ranger, is the speed limit in the park so high? Visitors are allowed to drive at 70km/h through Jasper and neighbouring Banff national parks in the Rocky Mountains, areas that are home to grizzlies, black bears, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, caribou, wolves and coyotes.
'We can't lower the speed limit,' says Dexter. 'If we reduced the speed limit the traffic would be bumper to bumper. Around two million people a year visit Jasper park alone. Banff gets around seven million. We can only warn motorists to be careful. Hit a bear or an elk and you could be killed yourself. Certainly the car would be a total write-off.'
We've driven 370km from Edmonton in Alberta to get to the small town of Jasper where our journey really begins. From there, we'll drive 150km south through the two national parks to Banff, before heading west to Vancouver, 850km away.
The town of Jasper is a great little place, full of restaurants, bars, hotels and guest houses. Many tourists arrive here by train to start their national park adventure, picking up a hire car or joining a coach tour. The town has an excellent information centre.
But it can get a bit noisy and, after a long drive from Edmonton, we want to escape the crowds, taking a Swiss-style chalet at peaceful Pyramid Lake only a few kilometres from town.