Wildlife in Banff and Jasper

All along the way, we kept seeing signs for a variety of wildlife, tantalizing us with yellow and black depictions of leaping stags (next 10km), lumbering bears (beware! stay in your car!...which no one obeyed), or parading elk or caribou. We stayed on high alert lookout, and were not disappointed. The animals never showed up anywhere near the signs, but in the most unexpected places along the side of the road.
The most rare sighting was a herd of bighorn sheep, lazing along the gravel glacier wash in a valley far below the road. Most tourists missed it, en route to the next big thing (glacier sky walk? icefield tour?). These quiet, stunning creatures made any manmade attraction pale in comparison.
Once parked in Whistlers, a Parks Canada campground in Jasper National Park, Sascha and Bill reacted (one quietly with a camera, the other barking her head off) to a caribou lazily chomping her way through our campsite, not 20 yards away. The caribou didn't bat an eyelash at the little noisy creature, but posed obligingly for the camera!