Beauty and the Beast

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I had decided to plan my Spring Break exploring two of the most beautiful natural creations that Canada is renowned for and two of the big reasons why I had wanted to visit this great country. This first was a drive through the Rocky Mountains, which included a visit to the very place that was responsible for luring me to apply for a teaching exchange. The other is the amazing phenomenon of the Northern Lights, which is an experience I will elaborate on in a future blog. Firstly, I will tell you about how beauty managed to tame the wild beast from Australia, and how this lonesome journey was both was soul building and soul destroying.



I couldn’t wait to jump into my car and start the long five-hour journey to Jasper where I would spend the next four nights exploring a beautiful part of the world. I made sure I helped pack up all that needed to be put away for parent teacher interviews before starting my journey along highway 1 and then eventually along the much promoted, anticipated talked about and considered the world’s most beautiful drive, Highway 93.



I had been told, forget the Rock Mountaineer (which was the other big reason I wanted to come here) and drive the Rockies as it you can stop and soak in the experience. I don’t think I have had a piece of advice that had ever been truer. Unfortunately cloud cover dampened my first taste of this experience but nonetheless, I was keen to explore the view from Peyto Lake to break up the drive. At this point I was nearly falling asleep at the wheel and my journey had only just begun, not through boredom but through the toll of the school week past.



Peyto Lake was indeed a beautiful place to stop, as the walk and the view were both amazing. As I was soon about to do discover and seemed to become a theme of the trip that this was much better experienced in the summer months. It is also where the conflicting soul building and destroying came into place. The view was amazing and I (the beast as I will refer to myself in this journey) began the process of being tamed by Mother Nature, but sharing that same view, that very experience at that very moment, were two couples. While nature was what put a smile on my beastly mug, it was the company of sharing such a great experience that put the laughter and smiles in these couples. It was another reminder that this beast was yet to find his true mate and that instant feeling of becoming a lone wolf started to over shadow my experience and my thoughts.



The remainder of the drive, I was treated to a tease, both by mountain views and by some of the local native animals. The cloud cover was like a woman that walked out the bathroom with a towel on. You were desperate to see more of what was hidden from you yet they were still so beautiful and mesmerizing. I was treated to jaw dropping views around every bend and amazed by many of the different parts of the drive, particularly a large hairpin turn, which was something to behold. The mountains the Beast witnessed varied from a mixture of snow-covered tops, to being half covered by trees or completely made up of impressive eroded rock formations. As I got closer to Jasper, I suddenly saw something that made me dangerously slow down and come to a stop. It was two Caribou who were roaming and grazing for food on the dot of dusk. It seemed the Beast had quickly again been entranced by one of Mother Nature’s creatures and I was keen to grab a snapshot of this moment. This suddenly became a game for the male Caribou, as each time I went to take a photo, he moved behind a tree. The female had darted back into the woods, for a safer path in her mind. This teasing game continued for a few minutes before I conceded defeat and drove on. This was not a battle I was going to win. This was the first of many animal encounters I experienced on Highway 93 and one of three or four different types of animals I saw in my travels.



Pyramid Lake was as beautiful as the Beast had imagined it to be and the resort was quite impressive as well. Surrounded by many walking trails, some with amazing views, this homage of a number of log cabins was where the beast would make his home for the coming days. Pyramid Island seemed to capture the beast’s attention for many different reasons. One was the views around it of the ice lake and the mountain ranges, the other was that it felt like a place you could just sit and watch the day role by, watching a movie scene on pause and never getting bored but exploring every finer detail of the picture in front of you. It is also known to be the best place to admire the night sky as Jasper is also a sky preserve park but this experience would have to wait for another adventure to these parts before witnessing this finer beauty as once again Mother Nature put a curtain over her stage.



On the first morning, the Beast decided to start his new adventure walking up the steep, slippery, icy terrain on one of the recommended trails that was mentioned to him. It seemed like this walk was a treadmill where someone kept adding to the incline every step you took, which lead to moments of beastly pants as he experienced fluctuations in breathlessness. Nature momentarily again gave the Beast a chance to be amazed, this time by the sounds of the pine forest as a woodpecker poked and prodded at a tree searching for his mornings breakfast. His sound echoed through the forest but was peaceful at the same time. The walk to the top was well worth it as the beast could do nothing but smile and admire amazing views of lakes, trees, and mountains as far as the eye could see. It was hard to leave, as you just wanted to soak every part of it up and ensure the memory was captured in your mind forever.



Maligne Canyon may not have been as picturesque walk as Johnson’s Canyon Ice walk but it was still a uniquely amazing experience. Parts of this very slippery track along the edge of this canyon were indeed extremely beautiful but where the experience became so much more was the ability to walk along and through the high, narrow walls, where parts of it where as high from the ground to the top as the Eifel Tower. While it was a tough time getting to the base of the canyon, it again mesmerized the beast as he saw trickling water features, ice climbers enjoying the frozen ice walls that had formed over the winter months and the adventure of exploring as far into the canyon as was safely possible. Some of these features were again breathtaking and were uniquely awesome to experience and thoroughly recommended.



Maligne Lake was unfortunately not something that the beast would see on this occasion as he was deceived by the beautiful view of Medicine Lake and deluded himself into thinking this was indeed the lake he was there to seek. This, however, was another example of a place much better for experiencing in the summer months and with cruises and water sports being possible for all to enjoy. Having said all that, Medicine Lake and the story behind it was indeed very interesting and quite captivating in its own right.



With the Miette Hot Springs another example of many experiences not open until when the warmer weather was more regular (early May) the Beast took the advice of the lovely Jessica who had served him at breakfast earlier in the day. She had mentioned that one of the more beautiful hiking experiences was the Valley of the Five Lakes. The Beast decided to explore this experience for himself and see if this would be another beauty that would captivate his interest. This was a walk that was spoiled once again by cloud cover, and was also quite slippery in parts and did start to snow during the 8.3km round trip, but beauty did find another way to impress the Beast. The walk itself is quite nice with a mixture of views of lakes and pine forests and some of the terrain was as steep and slippery as the Beast had experienced. This would also be a much better experience in summer or a clear day to appreciate the hidden beauty that the clouds deprived the Beast of on this day. An example of the danger of the odd fragments of icy paths was a runner who cantered past the Beast bleeding from his nose as well as accompanying scratches suggesting this may be best in the warmer months.



It was also good to catch up with Liam and Clare who happened to be in Jasper skiing during this time and the Beast had a good night sipping back some refreshing beverages as well as challenging the locals at 8-ball. This battle was more intriguing by the differentiation in the rules of the game and what we called the balls, which lead to some international communication clarifications. For example, a penalty was not two shots, but only 1. There was also no ‘D’ for the ball to be placed and off a break if you pot one ball in, you still had the choice of picking which balls you wish to played. They called the balls ‘solids and stripes’ compared to ‘bigs and smalls’ as well. Since we were the visitor we played by the rules of the home nation but this did not stop victory going to the Australian’s on this night. The Beast kept quiet the fact that in his home habitat he owned a billiard table and was quite impressive with his skill and flare on the table. This did however trigger a thought of home in his mind and a quick but sudden reminder of his hidden feeling of how he was secretly missing his domain.



Highway 93 has much more adventures than just lookouts and views but has many different hikes, natural falls and ice glaciers to explore. The Beast had only planned to explore the first half of this amazing drive and found that stopping was a regular hindrance in his quest to get to the Ice Glaciers and explore the recently built Skywalk that was a circular glace bridge with a see-through floor.



While again, the Beast discovered that these experiences were only offered from the start of May and through the warmer months, he was not disappointed by the hidden treasures he would discover on this beautiful journey. The Athabasca Falls were simply breathtaking. The sound of the rushing water flowing underneath an hard and thick icy cover crashed into the crystal clear blue water that flowed through a smallish canyon and out into a majestic setting that was equally as beautiful.



Maybe in some ways more impressive and a little less advertised was the Sunwapta Falls. This place reminded the Beast of a speech his great mate and mentor John Griffen gave his team in a Football Grand Final a few years ago about walking into a shop and making the choice between the Dunlop Volley’s and the Nike’s. “Are you willing to pay the price?” This indeed relates to the experience the Beast may have missed out on if he did not follow this advice. The Upper falls are only a few hundred metres from the car park, and you can tell that most people choose only to experience this astonishingly long and skinny water feature, but if you are willing to walk the steep 2 kilometre hike down and then back up again, you will not be disappointed you ‘paid the price’ of time spent doing this. A nice enough walk accompanies a flowing river that leads to the rushing lower falls. A mixture of white ice, many inches thick blended in with breathtaking clear blue components of water lead you to an amazing view of the lower falls and the valley where water leads the eye line to the mountains in the distance. The Beast had once again been captivated by the presence of these natural wonders.



After quickly exploring the small walk of the Ice Glacier and attempting to hike through thick snow at Parkers Ridge and nearly being crashed into by a talented snowboarder, the Beast quickly made the journey back to Jasper to enjoy parts of the local walks around some of the lakes that were situated near by the town. These walks lead him to venture up the 600m hike to the top of the Old Fort. Now noticed how I mentioned the word ‘up’!! This small hike in distance has a 130 metre vertical elevation from the bottom of the short staircase to the top, but again, if you were willing to ‘pay the price’, then the views are absolutely amazing. This is not an adventure I can advise for the faint hearted or the unfit as this is quite taxing on the lungs and the legs and luckily the snow had melted on this thin, close to edge in parts trail, otherwise it would be impossible to walk. Along with the beautiful views the Beast was warned by a couple of girls of Big Horn Sheep that were grazing about half way up this climb and to be careful. This was again another amazing photo opportunity and natural experience of being close by animals in their native habitat that you just simply can’t explain how amazing it is. The walk down did provide some heart fluttering moments but this ended another day of exploring where beauty had tamed the beast once again.



The walk along Lake Annette and Lake Edith was just stunning. While again famous for its qualities in the summer months the walk along here was peaceful, beautiful and quite flat compared to others the Beast had experienced. Again, the mountains play an amazing supporting role as a back drop to the iced up lakes but it was the knowledge of walking along tracks where wildlife had ventured the night before that at times gets your senses on high alert. Seeing tracks of Coyotes, wolves and known to be homage to bears at some point, makes you wonder if these animals are closely following your scent with the delightful thought of their next meal or sniff in disappointment as their meal was indeed long gone. Parts of Lake Edith have hidden away log cabins which occupy prime real estate that can either be rented out or lived in which add to the experience that can be enjoyed in this area.



The Beast didn’t know that one of his most defining experiences was about to occur and one he would cherish forever. After seeing the snow fall at Parker Ridge the Beast inquired about some snowshoes to see if he could be tamed by another one of natures beautiful challenges. After acquiring a pair from the Lodge, he ventured once again along the picturesque drive of Highway 93, a road that was becoming quite familiar yet still captivating you as if it was the first time you laid eyes on her. This time, Parkers Ridge and I were alone and foolishly the beast attempted this challenging walk through the thick, deep snow. This once again tested the lung capacity and its ability to intake oxygen at alarming rate. The Beast wound his way through a small pine forest before pushing up the endless path of snow to the top of the ridge. This 2.4km return hike up was a 250m elevation and there were moments that it seemed the Beast was going to be defeated by nature’s beauty. With views being a perfect excuse for a rest, it seemed the hike up was endless and there was no knowledge of whether the Beast was on the right path to his destination. There was a point where his snowshoes started to slide and it appears the challenge had reached its climax, but with copious amounts of heavy breathing and walking on all fours at one point, the Beast manage to get to the top of the ridge. Why was this defining? This was something the Beast could easily have turned back, but was willing to ‘pay the price’ and conquer a personal challenge and then really enjoy the rewards of the endless ice top mountain views. It was self-satisfying and so liberating, looking down on what seemed impossible and feeling like you were the king of the world just for that moment.



As part of the journey the Beast felt clever and decided to write his name in the snow, so that onlookers below would see his name from afar, and know that on this day, this was his mountain. While the affect was indeed creative, he had completed his work of art too high up and over a small ridge on his journey to the top so this would be his own private moment that only he can remember. The feeling of that fresh, strong blowing breeze at the top seemed to take away all the worries of the world and again beauty had put a smile on the face of the Beast.



The journey concluded with a final drive along the most beautiful highway in the world, with a short stop at Wilcox Pass before reaching his next destination, one he was eagerly awaiting. The regret was that the Beast did not retain his snowshoes as he could only do the 1.2km walk up to the first viewpoint. While he endeavored to try to go further, he soon found out that this might be quite a dangerous conquest to undertake. The view was still quite amazing and another great angle of the ice glacier pathway and one that can be less disturbed by tourists. Ironically enough a group of people snowshoeing the pass also were enjoying this place well worth seeing and the Beast was able to enjoy some small chit chat with them on his way down.



This first part of the Spring Break adventure was one that simply was amazing. A little hairy beast had fallen in love with the Rockies and had regained a passion for exploring the outdoors that he had forgotten about. The dedication to work back home had erased these memories and it was great to see nature at its finest. The Pyramid Lake Lodge is a beautiful spot to stay and has a tasty restaurant as well, both with breakfast and dinner menu that might be a bit on the pricey side but had amazing food; but as I mentioned before, this was an adventure of soul building and soul destroying. As the Beast would look out the window on to the lake at the front of the restaurant (even seeing a family of deer come as far up as the front door of reception at the lodge grazing for food during one of his breakfast meals), he couldn’t help but notice the couples and families sitting at near by tables and the lonely seat in front of him. Many of these journey’s he had experienced would have been perfect to share with someone special and while beauty of a different kind had captivated him, the longing for the meeting of his soul mate began to play on his mind. While he had never felt so alive, he had also never felt so alone.

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