Jasper and Maligne

We woke up to even more snow on the next morning.  Packing up the WET tent again, and heading on our way, we continued North on the Parkway.  Stunning scenery awaited us at every turn, along with some wildlife sightings (mountain sheep, mountain goats, elk, deer).  We made stops at most viewpoints, but took some more time at Athabasca Falls.  A few too many tourists, but what do you expect on the Labour Day weekend!  The opaque blue water pouring out the back end of the canyon looked freezing and we felt cold just watching the white water rafting trip start.  The staircases around the falls we really neat as they were built through dried up river channels from the falls.

We had lunch at a nice lake in cute little Jasper, a beautiful little place that looks like a hub for outdoor adventures.  Since we hadn’t showered in probably a week (hey – we are staying in primitive campsites) we cruised further north to Miette hot springs and after a rinse, we spent a couple of hours in the outdoor pools, with the rain coming down around us.  The even better part was…… you guessed it, we got to shower after!  Fresh and clean for another week!  Back to the rain at Pocahontas campsite - we have become accustomed to holing up in our tent playing backgammon and cards at night. 

The next morning, we were off to Maligne Lake up in the mountains.  We didn’t leave ourselves enough time to hike here, but apparently there is one of the best 3 day hikes in the Rockies here – the Skyline Trail.  I must admit, I was not really impressed with Maligne Lake, but I was expecting a particular view of Spirit Island that I could not get to cheaply, and was too far to walk.  A more interesting lake on the way was Medicine Lake, which apparently fills up in the Spring with the runoff, but turns into a series of channels later in the summer.  This is because there is no visible outlet from the lake, but instead there is a network of underground river channels that drain the lake.  It fills in Spring because the underground channels are not large enough to keep up with runoff into the lake.

A short drive back down the valley brings us to Maligne Canyon, the place where the underground rivers come back above ground.  We loved this canyon and took a long walk up and down the length of the canyon.  At some points, the canyon was 50m deep, but probably only about 5m wide max.  Super steep walls, very colourful green mosses and light blue waters filled with glacial sediment.  Pretty impressive, and a highlight of the day.

We camped that night at the overpriced, 780 site campsite in Jasper where we were surprised to see a huge elk and baby walk right through our site.    *Stub