A Second Visit from our Moose Friends - Jasper

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After dealing with a minor crisis brought on by Rufous's leaky gut syndrome (he's still running out of oil pretty quickly - the new seals mustn't have fixed the problem), we went back to Maligne Lake and, this time, hiked the steep Bald Hills trail. It was quite a hair-raising climb to the summit - there were ominous storm clouds approaching at an alarming rate and crazily strong gusts whipping up snow and blasting our faces with ice as we clawed our way to the peak. It was so incredibly windy up the top we could barely stand up. We all but ran back down the mountainside to beat the impending storm. The view was spectacular, though - we could see most of the huge Maligne Lake, Moose Lake, Mona Lake and the surrounding mountains. It started raining on us on the way back but, near the bottom, we once again ran into our moose friends - the mother and her calf! This time it was light so we could see them much better - as always, they were entirely occupied with munching everything in their path.

We had planned to go on a Maligne Lake boat ride in the afternoon but decided against it, due to a combination of the rain, the exorbitant price they charge suckers to take their 'cruise' and the fact we had seen a moose for free anyway . So we quite happily headed back to Jasper - and, just to top off the day, we came across a whole herd of bighorn sheep munching on the side of the road just north of town.

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Photos

Mother Moose Foraging by the Stream
She engulfed almost every bit of greenery she came across

Baby Moose Samples a Sapling
No foliage was safe from these two

Maligne Lake
View from Bald Hills summit just before the storm hit

Moose Doing What They Love Best
Mother and calf busily grazing away

Mother Moose Rock Hopping Across Stream
With her somewhat ungainly matchstick legs going every which way

Bald Hills Summit
It was so windy we could barely stand