The weather was looking quite promising, though the clouds were still around. We had decided this was the day to drive out to Maligne Lake. We stopped briefly at Maligne Canyon where the young park ranger told us she had never seen it like this - with so much water raging through the canyon. Photos and the short video don't do it justice.
After taking the short walk to the first bridge, we headed back to the road up to the lake. Not stopping at the several traffic jams where cars simply stopped in the middle of the road to view a bear feeding (we've seen bears now) we made it to the lake in time to have a coffee before we joined our scheduled cruise up the lake to Spirit Island. The rain came and went and the clouds lifted once again.
The cruise was lovely and our guide/host was very funny, but informative about what to expect and what we were viewing.
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| Just to prove the bears are there |
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| Possibly female big horn sheep still in partial winter coat |
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| Spirit Island - cut off from the mainland |
When we returned to the dock we had some lunch watching the passers by. The rain came and went again, but it was looking much improved since we arrived. We saw some Canada Geese on the shore and then went to take a look at the boathouse where you can hire canoes and kayaks.
I think the workers got their hopes up when we walked in, but I said we only wanted to take a look at an enterprising business. There were pallets stacked across the entrance to the flooded door to the inside of the boathouse. They told us that not too long ago they had a triple stack because of the height of the water. Normally, you would walk into the boathouse and step down into your canoe, but the landing was underwater so you had to step up!!!!
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| Looking towards the boathouse |
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| Flooded boathouse |
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| View down Maligne Lake |
When we left Maligne Lake we drove back towards the canyon and had a short stop at Medicine Lake. This lake usually drains away over the summer months. Our host at the B&B where we were staying had told us it was only once or twice in a lifetime the lake got this full. She said there were usually meadows you could walk along at the edge of the lake by descending the stairway. The bottom four stairs were under water.
As we were about to leave, the crowd at the viewpoint became very excited and started running towards the big horn sheep that came to visit!! Big mistake. The sheep started running and I only just had time for a quick shot before it galloped up the centre of the road. Big horn sheep are obviously as silly as farm sheep.
We returned to Maligne Canyon to take the longer trail which follows the canyon and crosses a number of bridges. We did think we could reach 5th bridge, but the trail started to descend rather steeply when we were about half way from 4th bridge. So we decided to abandon the quest. We had really seen enough as it was and other things were beckoning.
We took a short side trip to the Fairmont resort and treated ourselves to a very expensive couple of non-alcoholic drinks with a view. At least the bonus was I was a member of the President's Club having stayed in a Fairmont in Monte Carlo last year, so could make use of their wifi for free!!!!
A fitting end to a wonderful day. Jasper day 2 still to come .... as well as our trip down the Icefields Parkway - so much to do so little time for blogging!!!
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