Mountains & Lakes

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I'm writing this in the restaurant at the top of 'The Whistlers' in Jasper. We got the sky tram up. Steph isn't happy at the moment aesthete is a huge family sat in the same area as us and they are talking very loud. It's hard to hear ourselves think! It's not helped by the fact that as soon as we went to sit down I put my sunglasses down on the table and one of the little kids came to steal them off the table!! The top of the mountain is very cold at -4 degrees. Our ski jackets, hats and gloves have come in handy although Steph forgot her hat and gloves so is now walking round like a proper tourist in a hat and gloves emblazoned with the word - Canada!

We've wandered around the top of the mountain which is covered in snow. Steph decided to change into hiking boots while I left my converse on which was a mistake as its meant we can't hike the extra half an hour to the very top as its in snow and slippy. On the way up the guide in the tram told us that a couple of days ago a grizzly bear was spotted near the top. We haven't seen any wildlife yet which is slightly disappointing although we only want to see it from the safety of the car!! Once we've finished our hot chocolates we plan to go back down the mountain and drive to maligne lake.

After the hot chocolates we got the tram down and hopped in the car. It was my day to drive so I got in the driving seat and we drove to Maligne lake. The road was long from Jasper and is only open seasonally but luckily the snow and ice was all gone do we were good to go. We came to another lake first called Medicine Lake which was a lovely bluey green colour. However we decided to press on to Maligne Lake as its supposed to be better and time was getting on. We planned to stop at Medicine Lake on the way back for photos. By the time we got to Maligne Lake it was about 4pm. They do boat cruises on the lake but the last one left at 3pm so we missed that. We settled on a cup of tea at the lodge at the lake instead. Being honest we were a little disappointed with Maligne Lake it wasn't the bluey colour we had seen on photos. We took our own photos anyway as the mountains made the view pretty. There were no signs of wildlife or bears anywhere around which was weird as there were signs all over on the road up to the lake. We got back in the car and just as we were driving out of the car park there was a motor home stopped ahead with a deer in front of it! Steph hopped out to try and get some photos but it was difficult as there were quite a few cars around.

We drove a bit more round the lake and then decided to drive back slowly along the road back to Medicine Lake to take photos and try to spot more wildlife. We managed to spot two deer deep in the forest on the way back. We were excited about getting some good photos at Medicine Lake but when we got there at the pull in the water looked a murky grey instead of the brilliant bluey green it had been before! Typical! We figured that a lot of the colouring if the water must be something to do with the direction of the sun as it looked amazing earlier. Oh well we drove on and decided to stop off at two of the lakes we had spotted fro the top of the mountain earlier do drove to Lake Edith & Lake Annette. Lake Annette was stunning and the water was so clear so we took lots of photos and then took a few more at Lake Edith. We then decided to drive back up to Pyramid Lake to try and spot more wildlife and see if we could get any pictures. We didn't spot anymore wildlife apart from a tiny chipmunk which ran out right in front of the car. I was worried I'd ran it over but it lived to fight another day. We drove further round Pyramid Lake than last time and found a walkway to a small island in the middle of the lake. It had a cabin and some picnic benches on it do we went for a wander and got some nice photos. We then headed back into Jasper for dinner which we had at a lovely Greek restaurant (again!). Greek food seems to be very popular in Canada! We then headed back to the motel ready for an early night as tomorrow we are moving on from Jasper down the ice fields parkway to walk on a glacier!

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