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Published: April 28th 2006
Bears!
Ah, a glimmer of hope, we may see a bear after all!Will we see a bear today? Jasper National Park has a high concentration of Grizzly’s and Black Bear, so the odds should be stacked in our favour; or so you would think! Our eyes scoured the roadsides, trees, and open areas in search of a bear, but it proved to be a fruitless endeavour. We had a sneaking suspicion that the bears knew we were coming and would hide behind the trees out of our sight! In order to aid people like us who wish to see bears, perhaps they should hang berries from trees to entice them from their hideouts and then a Kenny Everett style large hand with pointing finger would appear out of nowhere to point the little critters out. All done in “the best possible taste”, of course!
Okay, so we didn’t see a bear. Perhaps a Moose then instead? Nope, not even one of them playing around by the side of a stream! A mountain goat? Nope, no luck there either. So what did we see? Well, on our way to the picturesque Maligne Lake, we did spot some deer on the side of the road nibbling away at the grass, then Gail spotted something
Deer!
Or maybe a deer instead? down a little side road, so turned the car around and headed down there to find more deer. A mother and her two little ones. There was one skittish one and a danger seeker. The skittish one bounded off like a kangaroo when it heard the crunching of gravel as we approached, whereas the rebel grazed further and further away from the mother and didn’t pay any attention to its surroundings and any imminent danger that they may be in.
We stayed and watched the deer for a while before heading on down the road towards Maligne Lake driving past Medicine Lake. This is a most peculiar lake. The Maligne River flows into it, but there is now outlet. Instead the water disappears underground and emerges further down in Maligne Canyon. The lake only had a few puddles of water in it when we saw it, so it wasn’t exactly spectacular.
Maligne Lake itself is a visually stunning lake with a little island in the middle which normally features on many of the pictures of the Rockies. Today the lake was of course frozen, but still looking spectacular, however we were disappointed not to see the typical view
portrayed on postcards and in picture books. Apparently in order to see the island with the trees you need to take a boat tour as it’s at the other end of the lake and considering that this is one of the biggest lakes in the Rockies, it’s something we wouldn’t be walking to see!
Headed back to Maligne Canyon where the river plunges 23 metres into a steep walled gorge. We parked the car and walked alongside the canyon peering over the rails down into the canyon bottom far below. Most of the river was still frozen, but you could see movement of water under the ice in places. During winter there are ice walks along the bottom of this canyon up to the water falls which is frozen solid. The waterfall today had melted, but in a rather unusual fashion. The outer part of the frozen waterfall remained frozen but the inside had thawed out and was now flowing with great force. It looked like a shower behind a glass brick wall! After our walk about, we meandered into the gift shop where they were selling some beautiful native carved stone artwork, but for prices like ½ a
million pounds! I think not!!
Back in Jasper we found a parking space right outside the laundrette so at least we didn’t have to lug the bag of washing across hecks half acre. Loaded up two machines then whipped out the laptop and started to do blog stuff while Gail wrote postcards. A very comfortable way in which to do washing! As we were the last ones there, when the lady was closing up she gave us some free cookies and buns to take away. How sweet is that?! That would do for breakfast tomorrow.
With memories of last nights dinner, we headed back to Evil Dave’s. Tonight though we both had a veggie burger which was lip smackingly fantastic! It had the works on it, plus cheese and grilled mushrooms, so it was a very sloppy affair eating it! We couldn’t leave without ordering the Chocolate Volcano again, that’s how delicious it was even though we were stuffed to the gills! Shame we can’t have the recipe. Anyone going to Jasper, I would recommend this restaurant, and do leave room for desert! Again a great end to the day.
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Pauline
non-member comment
At Last.....
Well Gail & Liisa, all I can say is... What a Trip!!! Fantastic pictures, views and travel (blog) news. Liisa I hope your elbow is alright now, man that sounded sore! Both you girls are lookin good, Gail a vision in pink by the Cherry Blossom tree and Liisa lookin regal yet thoughtful. I could have been your camera assistant Liisa, and you'd still have your lense cap:-) no fence Gail lol!! Have a Happy Sabbath, love Px