Glacier, lakes and grand views!

  We left Jasper after a very nice breakfast (salmon eggs Benedict), heading south toward lake Louise, we first drove through miles and miles of devastated forest.  Every tree, on every hill, on both sides of the road is gone - for over 20 miles!  It really makes you understand what they say when sometimes the air quality in NY is impacted by “Canadian fires”.  This being said, the landscape is still magnificent, with jagged peaks covered with ice surrounding great valleys.  

  After about 20 miles, we reached Athabaskan falls, and also at last, live trees.   The falls are awe inspiring and so it the great work that park Canada has done to make them accessible and enjoyable for the many visitors.  There are multiple point of views, and you can get really close!

 

  We also stoped at Sunwapta falls, where the Sunwapta river changes course and drops dramatically into a deep canyon.  Again, the trails leading to it and the viewing platforms were impressive.

 Then we went to this stretch of highway main attraction: the Columbia ice field, where you can see as many a 5 glaciers at a time.  We took one of the heavy vehicles that can drive up the hills to go take a walk on the glacier itself.  A very unique experience indeed!  The glacier itself looks dirty, because of  all the debris that settles on it, but the water that flows out of it is cristal clear (I took a sip, it was refreshing!).

  

  Then we went to the “skywalk”, a glass floor observation platform that extends over the Sunwapta valley. 

 

 It’s cool, a bit scary (but they had a lot of sign explaining how safe it is…) and gives a great view of the valley. 

 Driving along the valley, we saw many long horn sheep.  We also saw a large black bear, but did not notice in time to slow down and take pictures….. 

  There are many glacier visible along the route south - here is an example of the cap on the mountain- it’s hard to tell from the picture, but it is over 50 feet deep.  There are people who really enjoy this snow even more than we do…  At one spot, we saw people walking up the mountain, just to ski down it - you can see the ski tracks all down the slope, and the little spot on the left is a guy walking up it!

 The road is really beautiful and awesome the entire way, and I could post 100 pictures, and we could have stopped at every view point and take a hundred more…..  but it would not do it justice, so here are just two.  

  Continuing toward Lake Louise, we stopped at Peyto lake, known for its distinctive turquoise color, and its wolf head shape. It is stunning - and the walk to it, though a snow covered forest, is very pleasant.  It was however on the very edge of being unpleasantly crowded.  It is not yet peak season - it must be just crazy in July!

 Finally, we made it to lake Louise, which is as pretty as they say.  It is crowded too, but it doesn’t matter, because we are splurging and staying at the “Chateau Lake Louise” (see top picture), the only hotel on the lake itself.  It is magnificent!

   I took a stroll along the lake, capturing some of the sights, and meeting this adorable western chipmunk), before “cocktails with a view” and a nice fondue at one of the hotel’s restaurant.  We are only staying one. Night, which is too bad because it is a really special place.  On the other hand, as mentioned above, it is a splurge…

The motto of Alberta is “ land of the wild rose”, so here is one.  

    

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Weather, shmeather!

 The weather forecast for today was not good!  It was raining when we got up and there were very low clouds.  Rain was going to last all morning and the clouds all day.  But, as they say “weather, shmeather!”  (Do they say that??  Not sure, but it sounds good to me).  We had reservations for a tour to go to lake Maligne, and so we boarded our small bus, hoping for the best.  We lucked out! 

 On the way up to the lake, we drove through the forest that was devastated by the fires of 2024.  The extent of it is hard to comprehend.   Thousand of acres destroyed, including a lot of the town of Jasper itself.  Most large animal within the park survived (bears, elks, moose) because they could move away and/or stay near the river, but most small animal (squirrels, etc) died.   Only one human died ( a 24 year old firefighter), but many houses were destroyed and there are still large areas of temporary trailers where people live now (our driver said that these are in fact very nice and that people are dreading the day they go away because they are a good deal).

  

 Part of the problem with the fires was that a lot of the trees had died and dried up before it, because of the pine beetles.  In order to get rid of them, the temperature needs to drop below 10 for 2 weeks straight, which had not happened in a while.  So there were a lot of dead trees.  You can still see them (the red ones) in areas that did not burn down.  Luckily, 2023 was very cold, and the infestation is under control.  But that did not help with the 2024 fires.  

 It is nice to see the undergrowth growing back, and flowers blooming amongst the dead trees.

   Also, all the luscious undergrowth is wonderful for elks and mule deer.  

 We stopped by “disappearing lake” so called because it literally disappears in the summer- not because it dries out, but because it drains through underground caves.  It had a couple of nesting bald eagles.   But we have many bald eagles back home, so no need for pictures..

 We continued along the Maligne river - named by a French fur trader because it was so rough (maligne meaning wicked in French), to the famous Maligne lake.

   It was still quite overcast when we got there, but the clouds were starting to lift.

The lake is so clear that you can see the trouts swimming in it from the bridge.  

  

I went for a hike (duh…..) and Joe took a boat ride around the lake.

I went up to the well named Moose lake, where a moose was indeed wading in the water!  I stayed there quite a while just staring at it!  

 There were also interesting duck, which Merlin seem to think is a Barrows Golden eye, but I don’t know…..

 The wooded trail to the lake had an amazing variety of moss and lichen (and everyone knows how much I love these) in its almost rain forest-like undergrowth.  And I even found some morels!!!! (Did not pick them up, but was tempted….)   

 During my walk, the sky brightened end up and by the time I made it back to the Maligne lake, the typical mountain-scape for which it is famous was in full view.

 Joe went on a boat ride around the lake - the most well known feature of which is spirit island.

 We came back by 3:00pm, which gave me time to walked through downtown Jasper…..  don’t blink….  It is very small, in part by design:  since it is in a national park, there is no development at all - only people who have a job in town or in the park are allowed to live here, and there is no new construction (except to replace what was lost in the fire).  But also, it never was much of a town:  I was created by fur traders, and then grew as a railway stop, but as the fur industry died down (because all the bisons had been killed and the beavers had been brought to the edge of extinsion), there was nothing else to replace it.  

 OF course, it had long been inhabited by First Nation people, and then grew as center of town has a memorial to they history.   

It is pleasant though, what with the beautiful background and beautiful skies!