Jasper is awesome. I mean, we knew all along that this was likely to be the high point of the trip, and we’ve seen the pictures. But being here and surrounded by all the enormous, beautiful mountains and lakes is really something special.
We were pretty bummed when it rained this morning, but we decided to go out hiking with our guide Paula anyway. We were so glad we did.
Just after we left the hotel, we drove past a herd of elk that apparently like to hang out in town:
Paula took us hiking along Maligne Canyon. We had been a little nervous hiring a guide, as we tend to be more than a little independent, but we really learned a lot about the flora, fauna and general geology. Maligne Canyon started life as a fissure left behind by the glaciers retreating, then became the natural way for water to run off the mountain. Now it’s this crazy deep, narrow canyon with beautiful cliffs and waterfalls:
We didn’t hike down that far, just until we got to this waterfall, more run off from the mountain:
Paula spent some time explaining the geology of the area – all the rock is porous limestone, and under the canyon is an elaborate system of caves. The water drains down the caves as well as the river. What is so throughly cool about this is a lake at one end, called Medicine Lake, which is like a giant bathtub with drains. When the cave system gets full of water, it backs up into the lake. Then the water drains all the way out of the lake again as the runoff eases up. The thing is, this lake is 7km long and the water can be 20m deep at times. It was really wild to see.
Along the shore of Medicine Lake, we got to see an eagles nest, with a couple of eagles hanging out. Unfortunately it was too far away to get a decent picture. We did, however, make friends with this bighorn sheep:
After a picnic lunch by the side of the river, we drove up to Maligne Lake, which is spectacularly beautiful. It’s still mostly frozen this time of year (we were at about 6000 feet elevation, and there’s quite a cold breeze coming off the glaciers in the distance):
But we could see trout spawning in the lake just below where we were standing. The water was so clear!
After we left Paula, we drove up to Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake, on the other side of town. Both are beautiful glacier fed, turquoise lakes surrounded by mountains:
We had found out from Paula that the unique color is from very fine particulates in the water, ground up by the glacier. I don’t know how well it comes through in the pictures but it was very, very cool in person.
Today has been everything we were hoping for on this trip. Tomorrow we travel Icefields Parkway, down to Banff. Hopefully we’ll see more wildlife – I really want to see a moose!