We managed to snooze a little longer this morning waking just before 8. We got ourselves showered and dressed then finished up some of the pastries we had for breakfast along with some mixed fresh fruit.
We had a booking for the Maligne Lake boat tour to Spirit Island for 2.30 this afternoon, so we decided to spend the morning at Maligne Canyon. The parking lot is just a 15/20 minute drive from the town of Jasper. The weather is forecast to be more reliable than yesterday but we still started with some snow flurries as we headed for the Canyon. We parked up, changed into our walking boots but now the sun was shining so I decided to brave it with a fleece, Keith stuck with his coat. We decided on the "moderate" walk which would give us a round trip from bridges 1 to 4 in total. It was quite a long walk down! A mix of steps and natural path took us to the bridges criss-crossing the canyon giving views down to the cascading river.
After viewing the views at the 4th bridge we headed back up! Lucky us! Eventually we reached the car park and opted to have a coffee in the restaurant. We sat outside on the patio overlooking the river before it falls into the gorge.
Back to the car and we headed off towards Maligne Lake, just gazing at the ever expanding mountain vistas, every turn is like a postcard.
We passed Medicine Lake which looked half empty of water (we later discovered this is called the disappearing lake as the water falls into underground tunnels in fall and winter before resurfacing further down the valley. The lake refills during the spring and summer melt).
The drive down Maligne Road to the lake is about 43km so takes a while. We parked in the overflow/upper car park and decided to eat the picnic lunch I had prepared before we left. We then walked down to the lake shore and had a glance at where we needed to catch the boat later. We had about an hour to spare so took the easy walk to the left of the lake.
Back at the boat Dock we waiting for our boat time to be called then headed onto the Dock and boarded our boat 'the John Albert'. Our guide was Syndey and our boat driver was Becca. We were soon on our way with instructions that we were allowed to stand outside on the back of the boat to take pictures if we liked (no kire than 6 at a time tho). We took turns to view the mountains as we powered down the lake. Spirit Island is approx 14km from our starting point. We pulled into the nearby Dock and were then allowed to get off to view the island. Its not technically an island at this time of the year but because of its special meaning to some, it is not accessible to the public. We spent about 15 mins here before the boat sounded a horn to signal us back on board for the return journey. We had a lovely chat on the way back with a couple of ladies from the Seattle area who were very interested in things like ... how did we cope driving on their side of the road (apparently we drive on the wrong side in the UK) and do we have guns! This was a spectacular trip, with stunning views in every direction.
Back on dry land we headed to the gift shop, where I added to my ever growing fridge magnet collection and also found a couple of sweatshirts I liked, well buy one get one half price couldn't be missed!
We drove back up Maligne Road, stopping at the 5th bridge of Maligne Canyon, the drove back into Jasper and had brief visits to Pyramid and Patricia Lakes before returning to our apartment.
We had been hoping to go back to Earl's for dinner but unfortunately they had no availability. So after a wander down the main street we decided on the Mad Grizzly. We started with lemon pepper chicken wings, then I had Curried Duck with jasmine rice and Keith had Grizzly noodles with beef. I also had a gin and grapefruit cocktail. It was a lovely little restaurant with good food.
And unfortunately that just about wraps up our stay in Jasper, tomorrow we head south down the Icefield Parkway. There may not be a blog update tomorrow as we are staying at Emerald Lake Lodge which has no WiFi or Internet connections!! Will hopefully be back the following day.
No comments:
Post a Comment