Travels with Gunther and Kara

Today was finally the kind of day we’ve been wanting to have here on our trip to the Canadian Rockies. Brilliant sunshine, temps in the upper 60s so it was warm enough for short sleeves and cool enough so that we really didn’t get sweaty while on the hike…and we saw lots of wildlife and cool views as well.

Our destination was Maligne Lake that we visited the other day in the rain…we talked about the possible hikes on the way out and decided on the Lorraine and Mona Lakes hike of about 3.5 miles. It’s an out and back on part of the Summit Trail…you’ll likely see caribou on the Summit Trail and the views are supposed to be great…but it’s 12 miles plus round trip and 1800 feet of elevation change up to the summit…so we passed on that one.

It’s about a 30 mile trip out to Maligne Lake from the campground so we headed out about 0930 or so. Our first stop was Medicine Lake where we stopped the other day on a cloudy, gloomy day…that’s the lake with the leads in the bottom that was the subject of Kara’s geology/science lesson the other day. Here’s a pano Neil grabbed so that you can see the beautiful reflections on the lake surface

and here’s one just taken with a normal wide angle lens so it lacks the distortion close to the bottom center that the pano introduces.

We continued on up the road; which runs just through the bright green trees you can see on the left side of the photo along the lake to the far end, then cuts right in front of the mountain at the far end of the lake and heads right out of this photo towards Maligne Lake. We stopped by the eagle nest which is in the trees on the left as well and could see the eaglets in the nest…they’re still in the gray downy feathers like you previously saw the eagles of Ozzie and Harriet down in Fort Myers…but the pictures were not that great so I am not going to post them. We did spot this little guy alongside the road though; he was chowing down on some berries about 10 feet off the road. Neil stopped for the jam, jumped out of the car and stood behind one of the other cars that was stopped and grabbed this shot.

A few more kilometers up the road Connie the Wildlife Spotter yelled “Stop, Moose!” So we did and spotted another moose with antlers in velvet so we grabbed a few photos.

then, right around the corner from the moose a couple of young mule deer trotted across the road so we shot them as well.

Arriving at Maligne Lake; we found the parking lot for the Lorraine/Mona Lake hike and headed up. Within the first 100 yards or so of the trail we spotted another mule deer.

and Neil got a shot of Connie heading up the pretty well maintained trail.

Our hike was about 3.5 miles total on an out and back with about 80 meters of elevation gain on the way out. We felt the gain although not as bad as yesterday as the elevation was spread out over the entire out section of the hike rather than all being crammed in a single kilometer or half mile like it was yesterday. A nice gentle grade that was not too bad in most places.

Arriving at the lakes that were our destination for lunch; we grabbed some shots of this little pond about 40 yards wide but probably 10 feet deep; then of Lorraine Lake, then of Mona Lake which was the most striking of the three.

We sat there for maybe 30 or 40 minutes resting and having lunch; then retraced our steps back to the parking lot. Luckily…it was mostly downhill on the return trip.

After grabbing a soda from the little store there we wandered down and got some pictures of Maligne Lake; first a few from right where the lake tour boats leave from and then one from the bridge over the Maligne River where the outlet of the lake heads down toward Medicine Lake and finally one looking downstream over the Maligne River toward Medicine Lake.

With that we headed home with a planned stop in Jasper to upload yesterday’s blog post and check email. On the way however; we ran into another jam and were able to get a few photos of this cute little guy.

We headed on down the road and arrived uneventfully at home.

After showers Neil made some Pork Picata with white cheese mashed ‘taters for dinner along with a wine cooler. Tomorrow it’s going to rain in the AM so we’re off to the coffee shop so Connie can work and then we have a couple short hikes for after lunch.

Cyas.

We were so happy when today dawned with pretty decent weather. There were some scattered clouds but mostly blue skies, the temps were forecast to be in the mid to upper 60s and no rain was predicted. So; after coffee and breakfast we headed out for our trip over to Meitte Valley. This is a valley on the far east side of the park back towards Edmonton and was about a 60 or 70 mile round trip…but things are just spread out up here so we headed out after filling the car with gas and finding a place to get diesel for BAT later in the week.

Our first stop was at the Snaring River about 6 miles east of the city of Jasper…where got some nice shots of the mountains and rushing waters.

Continuing on east on Highway 16 we encountered the first mountain goats we’ve seen on our trip…these are female Big Horn Sheep and were right by the side of the road. As you can see they’re shedding their winter wool so they look sort of scruffy…it took us awhile to figure out what they were doing but eventually it dawned on us that they were licking up leftover salt from the road treatment during the past winter.

After getting some pretty close up photos we continued on towards Meitte…coming around a bend a mile or two up the road we saw this beautiful vista of Jasper Lake which is on the north/west side of highway 16. The water in the lake was almost dead calm and the sun had come out pretty strongly so we got some really dramatic shots of the lake, mountains, and the reflections of mountains and clouds in the calm lake surface.

Wow was about all we could say here. When Neil hiked a hundred yards or so from the road down to the beach you see in these pictures he saw tracks of bear, elk, and some sort of cat…they resembled the bobcat tracks we had seen previously but were a bit larger so they were likely catamount or mountain lion tracks instead. No way to tell for sure since he’s not that good of a biologist and the owners of the feet making the tracks were not around any longer.

Arriving at the entrance to Meitte Valley our first stop was the abandoned Pocahontas Mine…we were unable to figure out from the signs what kind of mine this was but it was a company town mine so was either a large corporate gold mine or perhaps coal since we did see some coal lying around. We headed out on our 3 and 1/2 mile hike and almost immediately started climbing…the hike was essentially an out and back and we climbed over a ridge about 120 meters or so high almost right from the get go. Pretty steep; we had to stop and rest a couple of times but at least the elevation here is lower so we didn’t have quite as hard a time breathing as we did back in Colorado Springs. We grabbed a shot of the mountains across the other side of the valley as well as some pretty purple/pink flowers we saw.

and finally after about 2 miles or so came to what we thought would be a highlight of the hike…Punchbowl Falls. The fall is about 60 or 80 feet high and is on a stream very originally named as Mountain Creek. The lip is about 4 feet wide where the stream passes between two stone outcroppings then falls in 2 cascades down to the base. Unfortunately we could not get any decent pictures; the clearest view was from a bridge directly over the lip of the falls looking straight down…the best side shot Neil could get to without falling off the cliff (and he had to climb slightly outside of the “approved viewing area” to even get these) didn’t really give a very good view of the falls either. Nonetheless…any waterfall is a good waterfall is what we always say so here are the photos even though they aren’t the best views we’ve ever gotten. First is the vertical looking almost straight down shot and then the side shot from out on the left side as seen in the vertical shot.

It was actually a pretty decent fall…we just couldn’t get anywhere we could get a decent view of it for a photo. C’est la vie. To actually reach the falls we had to come down about 1/3 of the way off the ridge we climbed before…so we debated whether to hike back up the ridge and then return to the parking lot via the trail in the woods or whether to just hike straight down the road to the parking area. The shorter, all down hill trek down the road won out…the clincher was that we were getting hungry and wanted to get down to the Meitte Hot Springs area before we ate lunch and that was another 17 kilometers down a road with a speed limit of 50. So we hiked down the road grabbing a picture of some Lady Slipper flowers on the way,

hopped in the car and headed out to Meitte Hot Springs. Unfortunately; the hot springs pretty much were a bust; the springs themselves are hidden and the water is piped into a swimming pool arrangement so there were no good pictures to be had. We stopped and had lunch while watching a red tailed squirrel keep picking up pieces of bread that had been left at another picnic table, running up a tree, eating half of the piece and then hiding the remainder up in the tree, then running back down to get another piece. Here’s the best shot we got of the squirrel and also a shot of the Aligarth Ridge which is an almost vertical 4000 or so feet tall cliff bordering the left side of the road as it heads toward the hot springs. We looked up there for some mountain goats since Neil wanted to find some but no luck.

After lunch we headed back towards home and shortly after getting back off of Meitte Hot Springs Road and turning south onto Highway 16 again we figured out where the mountain goats were…they were hanging out right next to the road on Highway 16! These are Rock Mountain Goats…we couldn’t figure out whether they are male or female as both have identical horns. Notice how they walk around seemingly unconcerned on rock slopes that a person would have a hard time standing on, much less walking or running across. This group of about 12 or 15 were about 25 yards away and maybe 20 feet off the level of the road but are on a pretty sleep slope feeding.

Continuing on down the road we came across another spot where 2 cars were pulled over…we’ve learned that out here this means there’s something worthwhile to see so we (amazingly enough) joined the pulled over crowd where we spotted this moose lying down about 30 yards from the road. The antlers are still growing and are covered with velvet still; in another couple of months they will reach full size and then the blood vessels will dry up and the antlers will harden to the bone like consistency one normally thinks of antlers as…when they’re in velvet they’re soft like a finger would be.

Neil stood around for a few minutes talking to this couple from India hoping the moose would get up; all you can see in the photo above is the antlers and ear, the nose pointing to the right, and a little bit of the shoulders. No luck there…but by hanging around for a few he did spot this Bald Eagle flying by and was able to get a couple of frames although it was pretty far away; he cropped these so it’s not just a brown dot but no so much as to completely blow out the resolution.

We finally gave up and headed home…but again spotted the pulled over group of cars so stopped and looked to our left and saw this male Big Horn Sheep and his harem. This was about the same location as the first set of female Big Horn photos so it’s possible that this is the same group that was joined by the male.

Neil climbed up behind them and got 1 decent shot…then naturally they climbed down to the road to eat some salt and walked about 4 feet from Connie sitting in the car. Neil scampered down the cliff and got a few more before we headed for home.

And with that our day of hiking and Mountain Goats was done. We dropped off the cameras at home and went down to the Brewery for dinner…our original plan was to make panko crusted pork pounded thin with some noodles…but that’s not a very quick dinner so we saved it for tomorrow and had a couple of brews, fish and chips, and steak frites.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day…so we’ll do something but haven’t figured it out yet.

Cyas.

Well, so much for mostly sunny…the weather today was cloudy most of the day with some periods of light rain. There were a few periods of almost sunny that we took advantage of for photos on our hike…but after breakfast we decided to go on our planned hike anyway and just make sure we took warm and dry clothes.

We packed up lunch and rain gear and headed out about 1130. First stop was right outside the campground where there was an Elk Jam. We stopped a way back and watched 6 carloads of people including children as young as 3 or so walk right up to this group of cow elks. Didn’t see any elk calves but one of the females mock charged a young Asian couple and their 3 year old several times…the idiots just stood there not knowing that they were taking a serious risk of getting trampled. Connie was yelling at them…as well as the guy with a super telephoto lens who (despite the telephoto lens) walked up to within about 20 feet of them. Neil got this shot from probably 40 yards or so away across the road; we didn’t even get out of the car for it.

Continuing south down Highway 93…we crossed the Athabasca River and Neil walked back out on the bridge to get shots down and up river of the pretty swollen river. The second picture actually has either a bear or beaver or something similarly brown on the river’s edge; but it’s way out there (probably a half mile away) so it’s not really visible. Wasn’t visible with the telephoto lens either so it was really far out.

We continued down another couple of miles and pulled into parking area 15 for the Valley of Five Lakes Loop Hike. There weren’t any spots left so Neil sort of made one…as we packed out stuff to head out we talked to ourselves again about why we don’t usually hike on the weekends…but that given the weather forecast waiting for a weekday wouldn’t have really worked. Luckily; despite there being 30 or cars in the parking lot…the trail was fairly deserted…there are about 5 trails through the valley and a bunch off ways to combine them with a total length of about 7 or 8 miles so the crowd was pretty spread out.

We spotted a nice red wildflower.

and then after a serious climb over a ridge about 75 meters high, down the back side, then back up and down another one 30 or so meters high we ended up at Lake #5. There are a total of 5 lakes in this valley…hence the name Valley of FIve Lakes. Last night when we were planning the hike we decided to start at 5 and proceed north along the east side of the lakes, then turn back at the north end of #1 and cut back between 1 and 2 to return to the parking area. The alternative route was to continue around the north side of #1 and head back down the west side. As it turned out…this was about 2 miles farther and had a bunch of up and down terrain contours on the map so we’re glad we decided to skip and take the shorter route back. All of the lakes have a bluish color with each one being slightly differently hued due to being at different depths. The smallest lake is #2 which is almost circular and maybe a quarter mile around. Number 4 is slightly larger and the odd numbered ones are all longer and shaped more like a finger lake with #1 being the largest at about 1.25 miles long and maybe a1/3 of a mile wide at it’s widest.

First stop was at #5, here are a couple of shots of it as well as of a couple of for rent boats that are waiting slightly better weather before being rented.

We almost stopped for lunch on a log right near these boats but Neil convinced us to trek the 1/4 of a mile or so to #4 hoping for a better view. Here is the view from the south end of #4.

We stopped for lunch at the little beach you can just see sticking out from the right side of the lake…lunch was some turkey wraps we made up this morning. While we were eating a duck landed out in the middle of the lake…he kept diving and swimming underwater along the bottom looking for food and pretty soon was within 20 or 30 yards of us. We grabbed some pictures but weren’t able to identify it as a female non breeding Barrow’s Golden Eye until we got home and looked it up in Petersons. We’re at the very south and east end of this species range and the key to figuring out what it was (as opposed to a Common Golden Eye) is the double white splotch on the wings where as the Common has a single patch. As we were taking photos she took off and ended up on lake #3 awhile later; Neil left the last picture in even though the bird is out of focus because it really shows off the motion as she flew off after running a half dozen steps across the water to get up to speed.

We packed up an headed about 150 yards or so across a small ridge to the southern end of #3.

then trudged up the right side of it to the other end and grabbed another shot looking back to get #3 an #4; the latter is the small section at the far end; we lunched just around to the left on #4.

From about the same spot as the last one above we could see #2 which turned out to be the worst of the bunch…it is almost dried up and has very little color in it.

However, as we were heading on toward #1 we did spot a hawk. We think it’s a Swainson’s Hawk but couldn’t decide for sure and weren’t able to get the super telephoto bird lens out of the backpack in time. Sorry about the lousy photo but it’s the best he could do.

After rounding #2 we headed downhill and then found the narrow land bridge between it and #1; then turned north up the east side off #1. This is the largest of the 5 lakes but unfortunately has the most obstructed views with trees right down to the edge and very few overlooks where you could get shots. Neil did get a couple of shots by hiking across rocks to the very edge of the lake and we grabbed a few through the trees to show off the beautiful aqua colors. 

Along the way we spotted some nice blue flowers so Connie grabbed a shot; and we also found a piece of elk spine and pelvis…based on the size this is probably from a calf about a year old we guessed as opposed to being from a newborn calf. It was picked pretty clean so despite the pretty fresh bear poop we also found along the trail probably is a week or two old anyway rather then being a fresh kill.

We also had the worst drizzle of the entire hike while going along side #1 but since the trail was well covered in the woods actually didn’t get too wet. After getting to the north end of the lake we retraced our steps to the junction of #1 an #2, grabbed a nice view looking north of the length of #1

and then we hiked up and over the two ridges between the lakes and the car…we were getting pretty tired by this time. We got back to the car, changed out of our hiking boots and headed into Jasper…where we got a beer at the Brewing Company and used their internet to get mail and upload yesterday’s blog post. A really good hike of about 4 to 5 miles…the views would have been a little better if it was sunny but we were pretty satisfied with it anyway.

Neil forgot he took a short video of lake #1, he found it later so I’ve posted it on youtube…you can see it here.

After that we headed home and had some chicken and rice with sauce for dinner. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy all day…so I think we’re going to go to Mass (we found a church in town so we don’t have to drive 45 miles over to Hinton like we thought we were going to have to)…and then do laundry as our hamper is getting pretty full.

Cyas.

Today was…well poop would pretty much describe how it was. We woke this morning to a pretty steady off and on rain so we just lazed around the house all morning. Around noon the rain had slacked up a bit so we had some lunch and then headed off to the Snowcone Cafe so Connie could do some work. Neil surfed the web, did email, and did some long range travel research for next spring/summer…and also for the summer of 2017. Turns out that on Aug 21, 2017 there will be the first total solar eclipse visible in the continental United States since 1991…and the only land it will touch is US territory. The line of totality will be about 50 or 60 miles wide and enters the coast from the west up in Washington. After transiting Yellowstone National Park it cuts down through Kansas City KS, Knoxville, TN, Charleston SC and departs the east coast in northern Georgia. For those of you who have never been in a total solar eclipse…you definitely want to travel to see this if at all possible. However, plan on looking at the maps later and make sure you’re in the thin line of totality. The web site for the eclipse is http://www.eclipse2017.org/ECLIPSE2017_main.HTM…check it out and see how close to you it will be. As the page says…if you’re outside the totality zone you’ll wonder why all the fuss came about as a solar eclipse that isn’t total isn’t much to see. Inside the totality zone it will be beautiful with the sparkling diamonds around the edge of the moon’s disk, the rarely visible solar corona, and the Ring of Fire as the totality starts and stops.

It’s a long way off still…but not too early to get this extremely rare event on your calendar. We’ll definitely make plans to see it.

Anyway; after our 2 hours of internet access…the Snowcone Cafe has really, really good internet speeds…we came home. When Connie started to get out of the car she shrieked as a couple of little creatures appeared to be running right toward her. We quickly identified these as Golden Marmots which are native to the area. We stood outside a few minutes and snapped a few shots (plus some from inside the house when the opportunity arose) and also got a shot of a Red Squirrel which again is native to the area.

First the Red Squirrel.

And then the Golden Marmot. Connie and Neil were both reminded of the movie Caddie Shack when they saw these guys sitting up…these things were clearly the inspiration for Varmint Cong.

After that we had afternoon siesta followed by a steak salad for dinner along with a Rum and Ginger Ale. Yum.

Tomorrow we have an all day hike planned to the Valley of the Five Lakes assuming the weather cooperates…which it’s supposed to do. Might change though…the weather conditions up here seem to change almost hourly in the spring.

Cyas.

I’ve come to the conclusion that in the Rockies Elk are essentially the equivalent of squirrels…the suckers are just about everywhere. Today we slept in until 0830 and then grabbed a quick cup of leftover coffee from yesterday and some scrambled eggs for breakfast. This was because Connie wanted to work awhile today so we hit up the Snowcone Cafe for a cup of coffee and some internet access.

First though; the elk glut. On the way out of our campground this morning we saw this one alongside the campground road

then about 50 yards down the road we spotted a pair of calves nestled down in the grass…with two moms hovering pretty close nearby watching over the babies.

On the way back from our hike we had to stop while 7 or 8 of them walked across the road in front of us and then once we got back to the house we spotted this one right across the road from our campsite. Neil snapped this one from inside the coach just to illustrate how close it was…notice the radio collar on this one so the park rangers can track her movements.

Anyway; we got to the cafe, grabbed a couple of cups of coffee and some internet access and Connie worked for 2 hours while Neil did email, posted yesterday’s blog post, argued with the New Horizons people over our slide repair, and surfed the web. Once that was done we came home and had some leftover spaghetti from last night along with a quesadilla for lunch; then it was off for more Fun Stuff.

Our destination today was the Patricia Lake Loop hike; this goes out alongside the lake and then comes back alongside a slough (what we would call a marsh back home) and was a total of about 3.5 miles with 80 meters of elevation gain. We started off climbing steeply uphill through the woods on a multi use trail that had been used by many, many, many horses and hence the trail was pretty torn up in addition to having piles of horse poop all over. Neil was hoping for the first 3/4 of a mile or so that we would eventually see something worth seeing rather than just a muddy trail and trees. Sure enough; we got up to the level where the lake is and hiked alongside it for awhile. Here is a series of 3 shots of the entire lake; these were taken from about the middle of the long side of the lake looking northwest, north, and then northeast.

The lake is maybe a mile or so long and a half mile wide with (as per usual up here) really clear water since it’s a snow melt fed alpine lake. Connie also spotted some nice purple wildflowers and then we came out on a little beach where we had a nice conversation with a couple of Canadian men from the Quebec area who were out here on a 3 week driving/hiking tour of Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territories.

Neil also grabbed a nice pano series from the beach which was located at the narrow end of the lake looking from northwest on the left back through east at the right side. Another beautiful alpine lake and the conversation with the two Canadian gents was great as well…I’ve included a shot of them as well…and a shot that Connie took of the lake with some tree branches in the foreground to frame it.

We headed away from the lake and turned back on the return trip back to the parking area and spotted this pretty butterfly along the way.

Then Neil spotted a Canada Goose that on further investigation turned out to be a pair of geese that on further investigation turned out to have 6 goslings along with them. Mom and dad were on overwatch for predators while the kids hunted something to eat in the shallows. We’ve seen lots of geese in our travels but I think these are the first gosling babies we’ve ever seen in the wild.

Shortly after the gosling sighting we happened across a Tricolor Blackbird; this is a very close but western cousin to the common Redwing Blackbird we’ve posted shots of before. The Tricolor has red and yellow epaulets where the Redwing has red with just a narrow yellow stripe at the bottom of the epaulet. Just a few feet away from the Tricolor were a pair of Mallard Ducks foraging for dinner…Neil got them both up and face down in the mud.

Here’s an overview picture of part of the slough itself and a close up of the beaver lodge in the center of one of the ponds (no beavers though, they musta been inside asleep)…as well as one that proves conclusively that bears do you know what in the woods (I swear, it wasn’t me, must have been one of my uncivilized non domesticated cousins).

After those last couple we hiked the remaining half mile back to the car, got out of our muddy hiking boots and headed into town. We stopped by the Jasper Brewing Company again and had a couple of pints of Honeybear Ale (man that stuff is good) and lo and behold our two Canadian hiker friends stopped in since they decided it was beer o’clock as well.

We headed home, got the shot of the elk out the back window from the beginning of the post and cooked a couple of pot pies for dinner. We were going to have a steak and make a hot steak and onion salad out of it…but it hadn’t thawed completely so we’ll just move that recipe until tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow; it’s supposed to rain so we’ll likely just go in so Connie can do some more work and then depending on the weather we’ll do something although I don’t know what it will be yet.

Cyas.

Hi everybody, Kara here. I’ve taken over the blog for today from Gunther for a couple of reasons. First off, he’s way too interested in finding his cousin bears here in Jasper National Park and second…today’s post includes a geology/science lesson and I’m the smart one so I get to edumacate ya’ll.

Before I get to the meat of today’s post, a few leftovers from yesterday. The adults went out to the Jasper Brewing Company for dinner and had a really great meal. Their Honeybear Ale was spectacular, the Cream Ale was good but not quite as spectacular…and for dinner they had Beef Carpaccio and Lobster Mac and Cheese. The food was really, really good…the only drawback was that when taking a bite Connie inhaled some of the panko bread crumbs off the top and choked. She thought she was going to pass out but was wheezing and getting some air so Neil banged her on the back. That didn’t work so he did the Heimlich Maneuver on her and got the blockage out of her throat so she could breathe easily again. He says it wasn’t as bad as Connie thought since she was always getting some air and wheezing a bit…but she was sorta panicked and was really glad when she recovered.

After she did recover we finished our meal and then headed for home…and spotted a female elk on the campground itself. Neil hopped out and got a couple of pictures.

Today we got up early since Earl the RV repair guy was coming at 0900. (well, actually Neil went to bed about 2100 last night and got up at 0100 since he had a fierce headache…but some drugs and sitting sort of propped up in the recliner fixed him up in an hour or so and he fell asleep). After breakfast and coffee we met Earl at 0900 and he quickly diagnosed our problem…as expected the bolt on the transfer arm for the living room slide had sheared off. He told us that it appeared to be an installation issue since the weaker bolt is supposed to be installed in the easy to get to rear end of the transfer bar…if this had been the case Neil would have figured out the problem himself and fixed it already. Anyway; an hour and 126.50 Canadian dollars the problem was fixed so we headed out for our daily Fun.

First stop was the Visitor Center for some internet…sending mail, checking Connie’s work mail, downloading the Wall Street Journal for the day, and checking her work email. After that we dropped by the house for lunch and headed out for Maligne Lake.

The weather was pretty good all the way out at least as far as Medicine Lake. On the way Neil snapped this photo of the mountain view

and then pretty quickly we arrived at Medicine Lake itself.

Beautiful, ain’t it.

Anyhoo, let me tell you a bit about this lake (Start Science/Geology Lesson). It’s about 12 miles long and maybe 3/4 of a mile wide at the widest point. Maximum depth is about 75 feet or so but here is the strange part. The lake is fed at the input end from the Maligne River (which is the outlet from Maligne Lake of course)…but it has no apparent outlet at the downstream end. Despite this lack of an outlet; the lake swells to it’s maximum depth and extent during the spring then gradually reduces during the dry summer season until by the late fall it’s pretty much disappeared entirely. The question is…where does the water come from and more importantly where does it go since there’s no outlet river or stream. Think on that for a few minutes…we’ll come back to it. Before I go though; Neil hiked down to the lake edge and got this beautiful panorama view of the entire lake.

Anyway; after he hiked back up to the car we headed for our most distant destination for the day; Maligne Lake itself. Shortly after leaving the Medicine Lake viewpoint (in fact you can see the trees in question on the far left of the first view of the lake) we spotted a bunch of cars on the side of the road. In the Rockies; this means that somebody has spotted something worth photographing…and the grouping of cars is colloquially known as a “bear jam”. We stopped and looked down on the shoreline for the bear which had precipitated this jam (although bear jams can also be caused by elk, moose, or just about anything else interesting) but didn’t see it. Neil did spot a momma Bald Eagle sitting on her nest though; sorry about the somewhat distant photo but she was a quarter mile or so away. We didn’t see papa at all and the eggs don’t look like they’ve hatched yet.

We left the Medicine Lake area and headed for Maligne Lake. We drove right alongside the edge of the cliff for about 10 miles; there was the road with a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour (about 37 mph or so)…then about 3 feet of gravel shoulder…then a 45 degree slope down to the lake which was anywhere from 50 to 150 feet below the road. Sure glad we didn’t go off the road…the first step woulda been a doozy. To top if off; the rain started coming down pretty steadily and by the time we got to Maligne Lake it had degenerated to a lousy afternoon. We skipped the pictures since we have a hike to go out at the lake later on and will grab some when we go back. It was a lot like Medicine Lake though…even though the views were bad due to the rain and clouds.

We gave up and headed for home; figuring that our planned hike at the Maligne Canyon would be rained out. To our surprise; by the time we drove 30 or so miles back the weather had cleared to a mostly sunny sky so we popped into the parking lot, took stock, and decided to hike anyway…we figured the worst that would happen would be that we would get wet.

Let me describe Maligne Canyon for you. It’s actually known as one of the best views in Jasper but despite that none of us had ever heard of it. The canyon is about 3 miles long and is essentially a slot canyon like one would see in the US southwest desert area. The depth of the canyon averages about 150 feet or so but has a maximum depth of about 300 feet. What really sets it apart is the width; which averages maybe 30 or 40 feet but in at least one area the two rims are within about 4 feet of each other. One could almost jump across it except for that 200 foot fall if you screw up. It was carved by the (of course) Maligne River as it runs south/west toward the Athabasca River which we had some pictures of yesterday. There are several hiking trails around the canyon rims and it is spanned by 6 walking bridges which range in length from less than 10 feet to maybe 50 feet. Starting at the upstream end of the canyon; near first bridge we spotted this waterfall.

It’s a bit hard to tell from the photo but this was taken from the bridge looking down at about 60 or 70 degrees below horizontal; in other words it’s almost a vertical shot down. The top of the fall is about 3 feet wide and there is about a 75 foot drop or so down to the pool below. The top of the fall is about 50 feet below the bridge so it’s like 150 or so feet down to the pool where the fall lands. At this point the flow (this is actually the Maligne River) is about 2 cubic meters per second or about 530 gallons per second. Keep that number in mind; it’s part of the science/geology lesson and will make more sense in context later. Here’s another shot taken from about the same place but looking downstream.

You can see the canyon is about 170 or so feet deep here and maybe 30 or 40 feet wide.

We hiked downstream awhile and got a number of really decent views of the canyon, river, and various falls.

This is the narrowest part of the canyon; as you can see based on the size of the fence the two rims are maybe 4 or 5 feet apart and this fall is 30 or so feet through the narrow gap.

There is still a lot of ice in the canyon; these two chunks are probably the size of a garage each

and another slightly farther away view of the really narrow part; the first picture was taken from atop the bridge you can see at the top of this phoeo.

This one is getting towards the bottom of the canyon

and finally one from near bridge 6 which is at the south/west end of the canyon where it widens out into a more typical river between the mountain peaks.

At this point near the exit of the canyon the river flow is about 45 cubic meters per second or about 12,000 gallons per second. The big question is…since this is the same river how did the flow go from 500 gallons per second to 12,000. Where did the water come from and does it have anything to do with Medicine Lake’s strange behavior. Of course it does…that’s the science/geology lesson for the day.

The answer is broken rocks. Back in the day when the Jasper Rockies were formed by uplifting of tectonic plates; the rock fractured and left an extensive cave system underground between the end of Medicine Lake and Maligne Canyon. The farthest upstream body of water Maligne Lake is fed entirely by snow melt and has a single outlet into the Maligne River which then flows into Medicine Lake. Medicine Lake however; is like a leaky bathtub and has lots of cracks in it’s floor leading into the cave system. During the spring the incoming flow from the snow melt and the Maligne River exceeds the cave systems ability to empty Medicine Lake so it swells to it’s maximum size and depth. Later on during the dry summer the inflow decreases but the underground drainage remains the same so the lake just disappears. 

Where does the water go? Well, the it travels through the cave system (it’s technically known as a karsk but it’s essentially just a bunch of flooded underground passages) and reappears at the surface in the Maligne Canyon; this results in a bunch of springs coming out of the sides of the canyon and adding to the river flow…this is the cause for the increase in flow between the top and bottom of the canyon. Here is a picture of one of the springs coming out of a cave in the side of the canyon.

See how the water is coming from inside the cliff? Here’s another shot of the same spring (ti’s about 15 or 20 feet wide) but with a wider angle so you can see how tall the canyon walls are at this point.

It’s probably 150 feet or so to the top of the canyon wall from the spring. Here’s a second spring with a much gentler drop into the main river…again, it’s just coming out of the side of the canyon.

One final shot of the last waterfall in the canyon itself

and then we climbed up out of the canyon to almost the top of the ridge alongside it. Here are shots from our last view of the river (upstream and downstream from the same viewpoint) before we hiked back to the parking area through the woods and meadows instead of along the rim of the canyon…along with one of the distant mountains (actually about midway direction wise between the up and downstream shots) when the mountain just popped out of the clouds.

With that the major viewpoints of our hike were done and it was just a matter of another mile and a half back (and 300 feet up) to the parking lot. We were getting tired by this point but with a few stops for breathing and water made it back just before the rain broke out again. It poured on us the 15 or so miles home but by the time we had showers and started making dinner had turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon.

The strangest thing we’ve had so far is how much daylight there actually is up here. It is light by 0430 in the morning and doesn’t get actually dark until almost 2300 at night…the light coming in the skylight over our shower actually interfere with sleep if we go to bed early. Luckily we wake up early anyway after so many years of working…we’ve been told that one adjusts to not *having* to get up early but it’s been almost two years since we retired from full time work and it ain’t happened yet.

We got back home and after showers Neil whipped up some Bolognaise Sauce (that’s spaghetti sauce with meat) and we had it over fettucini for dinner along with a nice bottle of Sawmill Creek Merlot. Delish.

Tomorrow we’re headed off early for the coffee shop so Connie can work a bit and I guess Neil will surf the web…then we’ll have some fun stuff although the specifics haven’t been identified yet.

Wasn’t that a cool science/geology lesson?

Update Thursday morning…this morning our next door neighbor in the campground tried to tell us the female elk in the first couple of photos was a deer…not.

Cyas.

Tuesday dawned and looked like a pretty decent day would be had; so after we had coffee and breakfast we headed off. Before Fun we stopped by the Visitor Center about miles north in downtown Jasper to download email, contact some repairman for the broken slide, and upload yesterday’s blog post.

Fair warning…posts for Fun Days from here on out will probably be pretty photo intensive as there is and will be lots to see and pass along. We had email and then a phone conversation with Ken from New Horizons; I think he’s going to give us a hard time on the warranty on the slide issue…the slide operating mechanism is made by Lippert and he said we would have to deal with them directly to get reimbursed. We’re going to go ahead and pay for the repairs ourselves  and then Neil will be pushing the point on getting New Horizons to deal with Lippert for reimbursement; the rig isn’t even a year old yet and neither of the adults will be bashful about emailing the owner directly. Anyway; once that was done we contacted a local RV repair guy who is coming tomorrow morning supposedly to troubleshoot the slide mechanism; either it will get fixed or if it’s beyond his capability to fix we will have to probably pull up and relocated to Hinton for a couple of days to find a full service RV dealer.

Once that was done we headed off for some fun. Since it was already getting pretty late in the morning we elected to just drive about 30 miles south to Sunwapta Falls (or Chutes Sunwapta as the French up here would call them); then stop by the Athabasca Falls on the way back; both are supposed to be pretty decent falls.

Our first find however; was this guy who crossed the road about 100 yards in front of the car and stopped to eat on the side of the road. We got the camera ready and then rolled up next to him on the lightly trafficked highway…these shots were taken through the window from about 10 yards away or so. Connie had her hand on the window control to put it up just in case; and Neil left the car in gear with the clutch disengaged (again, just in case). However, he was more interested in a snack than in us; never even looked in our direction. We couldn’t decide if it’s a grizzly or a brown bear.

Next up we stopped by a roadside and grabbed some shots of the Maligne Range; this is Athabasca Pass at the norther end. We’ll be stopping by the Athabasca Glacier later in the week and see the glacier in the southern end of this same pass.

The next roadside pullout featured a hike of a couple hundred yards down to the southern end of Horseshoe Lake. Neil is going to stop by the next time we’re coming up Highway 93 (Icefields Parkway) to get some shots at a better viewpoint; but he saw the view too late to stop and we took an alternate route back north on Highway 93A which is a much more rural, 2 lane country road rather than a high speed highway.

Next up was a series of stops alongside the Athabasca River; Icefields Parkway parallels it most of the way through the valley. Here’s a shot looking downstream at the river and the mountains on the west side of the river…and also a 170 degree panorama shot of the river and mountains from this same location.

We arrived at Sunwapta Falls; the total drop here is about 120 feet or so in two sections; the first photo is the lower section where there is a very narrow chute into a gorge; the second is the upper falls which is wider but not as tall; and finally the little island with both sides of the stream. You can just see the island in the upper left of the second photo.

We headed back north after grabbing some lunch and stopping at one of the Athabasca River overlooks for a picnic. Our second stop was at Athabasca Falls where the entire river falls about 80 feet or so over a split cascade. After that it runs through a narrow canyon; we got a lot of varying views from this one on a hike that was about a mile or so total.

First up was a pothole in the canyon; this is caused by the swirling water carrying sand and gravel. Over the centuries it carves a pothole shaped depression in the rock. Second is a shot of the total drop of the split cascade itself. The third shot is 180 degrees from the second one and shows the entrance into the canyon…it’s maybe 30 or 40 feet wide at the top and probably about 100 feet or so deep.

Next we hiked around to the top of the falls for a close up of the split cascade top of the falls.and a view of the smaller right cascade looking out toward the Maligne Range again.

Neil also grabbed a short video of Athabasca Falls which is located here. We then hiked down an old canyon that the river no longer flows through and got a couple of shots of the water exiting the canyon and a shot of a cairn that somebody had built as well as Connie grabbing a shot of Neil as he hiked out to the edge of the rocks to try and take a picture up the canyon (he almost failed, couldn’t get far enough around without walking out into the water and it was (a) 35 degrees or so and (b) deep so he settled for the shot here).

Climbing back up from the riverbed we took a short side trip to the canyon overlook…you can see the railing of it in the third picture back…and got a better shot up the canyon itself and looking downstream toward the peaks to the west.

Continuing up Highway 93A we spotted a bunch of small lakes including one with a flock of Mallard Ducks in it and another that is definitely kayak worthy if we get a warm enough day so that we don’t freeze when we get wet. The water was as clear as tap water; Neil could easily see fish 5 or 6 feet down in the lake when he was taking the photo.

Here are a couple of other shots Connie took; the first is of the layered rocks in the old canyon with a pine tree growing out of the rocks at Athabasca Falls that we climbed down the river through and the second is what she called her artsy photo of one of the mountains.

Shortly after we got the Mallard photo above we arrived back at the campground where we rested outside for a bit until the mosquitos showed up and then came in to rest. I think we’re having hamburgers from Walmart tonight. (Change of plans…Neil decided we’re going to the Jasper Brewing Company for a brewski and some bar food.) Tomorrow we’ll get the slide fixed in the morning hopefully and then do something Fun later on.

**Updated Wednesday morning. Our slide issue is fixed. The mechanic was out this morning and discovered a sheared bolt in the actuating mechanism which was what Neil thought it most likely was. The bolt has been replaced and the slide is working perfectly again. Yea!! Connie’s really happy to have all of her living space back.

Cyas.

Well, yesterday turned out to be good news and bad news. We got up about 0700 and after coffee and breakfast finished breaking camp and hitching up the rig and headed out shortly after 0930. After a quick stop for gas for the Mazda (got fuel for BAT the day before) we headed out on 16 West; a single road all the way to our destination at Jasper National Park’s Whistler Campground. Connie was having a really good day and was feeling much better about life than she was the past couple of days…she’s having troubles getting her VPN to the college back in Virginia to work and was stressing over that.

About halfway here it started raining and pretty much rained steady for the second half of our drive. By the time we pulled into Whistler Campground it had decreased to an on and off again drizzle so we got checked in and started setting up.

That’s when the bad news came in. After leveling and hooking up utilities we deployed the bedroom and kitchen slides normally but the living room slide would not go out…well, at least the rear end isn’t going out. The hydraulics mechanism is working and the front extends but the back doesn’t move. After some crawling under the coach and fiddling with things it looks like the linkage between the hydraulics (which is at the front of the slide) and the rear extending mechanism isn’t working properly. So; we pulled the living room slide all the way in which gives us pretty much no room back in the living area of the coach.

We have no internet here in the campground so we drove into Jaspe and found the visitor info place…sending off an email to New Horizons to figure out how to get it fixed. There isn’t much in the way of RV repair here in Jasper but there is a larger city named Hinton about a half hour east that has some RV dealers. We haven’t figured out whether we need to just get it fixed ourselves and send the bill to New Horizons or whether to wait on Ken from New Horizons to coordinate a repair location…we’ll talk about it again in a bit when Connie wakes up and we have some coffee and make a decision which way to proceed.

On the bright side; today is supposed to be a beautiful day so if waiting to hear from Ken is our decision we should be able to go on a hike or something fun to take our minds off of our troubles.

The park rangers told us on checkin yesterday that they’ve seen 4 grizzly bears in the campground this week (well, guess it was actually last week since it was only Monday when we checked in)…we did see 3 elk by the roadside in the campground on the way in. Here’s a shot of our site 58N here in the campground…it’s nice and wooded but amazingly enough we still have enough sky visibility to get 2 out of 3 of the DirectTV satellites; so we have some channels at least. Not all the ones we usually watch and no HD…so I guess that qualifies as roughing it.

Hopefully we’ll hear something on getting the slide repaired today.

Cyas.

Today turned out to be a pretty good day. We woke up to a partly cloudy sky but by 1000 or so it had cleared up and looked pretty nice; so after breakfast and coffee we headed out to our Fun Stuff for the day (well, actually we would have headed out even if it hadn’t been beautiful, but I digress) at Fort Edmonton.

Fort Edmonton is the preserved original Hudson Bay Company fort that was the central trading post for this region back in the mid 1800’s. Along with it are a couple of streets of the original settlement of Edmonton including a bunch of relocated buildings from back in the 1800s and early 1900s.

After a 15 or so mile drive we parked and headed into the Fort itself. Our first stop was the steam powered train that took us from the visitor center at the front back to the Fort itself at the rear of the park; this is one of the few steam locomotives still operating in Canada.

We had a seat on the second dar you can see for the mile or so ride back to the fort which borders the North Saskatchewan River. Once off the train we got some views of the outside of the fort itself

and then headed inside. Right near the entrance we spotted the official Fort Privy; we’re sure glad our house has indoor plumbing and we don’t’ have to put up with this.

Nearby is the parade ground with the Fort Manager’s house at the rear

and then we spotted the oven that they baked their bread in. Our Breville 800 do it all Toaster Oven is so much more convenient than this; we’re sure glad we have it.

We wandered through the cafeteria/meeting room/common area

and then got to the real reason the Fort even existed; the fur trade. Here’s a picture of a Beaver pelt

While in this trading post area of the Fort we talked to a reenactors who was manning the trading post and found a bunch of facts we didn’t know about before. For instance; no money was used up here; the unit of monetary exchange was the Beaver. All other pelts were valued in terms of how many Beavers they were worth and goods were priced in Beavers. One guy asked why they used Beavers and the reenactor said it was similar to the trade down in the US where the unit of exchange was a deer (or buck) skin…this is (according to him, don’t know if this is true or not) why the US dollar is known as a buck. 

The other really interesting thing we learned was that in Canada they shave their Beavers!! Really. Looking at the  pelt above; the brownish outer fur bristles you see are known as Guard Quills and they were pulled out and packaged for sending to furniture makers for use as stuffing in cushions. Underneath the beaver has fine interlocking black fur; this was shaved off and made into felt for use in hats; a typical top hat in London cost 50 pounds which was about a year’s wages for an average laborer. We always thought they made beaver hats out of the fur itself…and had no idea that they actually shaved their beavers before making the hats. Once the fur was all removed from the pelt the leather was sold to glove makers and used to make primarily ladies gloves since it’s a really soft leather.

Connie got a close up of the Fort Managers house…which also served as the administration building.

Moving along outside of the Fort we visited the Cree Indian encampment; these were the local Indians back in the 1800’s. We sampled their fried bread known as bannock…it has raisins in it and was pretty good.

After that we moved into the late 1800s section of the park where we spotted a stagecoach

and then passed through into the early 1900s section of town where we visited the Firehouse with a couple of old time fire engines; the hook and ladder is on the right.

We also spotted these guys driving around in an early model Chevy pickup truck…looks like BAT’s ancestor!!

We visited the local Catholic Church

and spotted the mosque across the street…we had no idea that there were Muslims here back in the 1800s.

After this we wandered by the airfield and the Midway with carnival rides…but by that time we were getting tired so we headed back to the car and for home. On the way we spotted a Costco…which meant we could go in and get more chocolate covered raisins…these are one of Neil’s favorite snacks and the ones from Costco taste so much better than just about any other brand.

Getting home we had a nap and a shower and plotted out the rest of our weekend here in Edmonton. Tomorrow we’re going to a bird sanctuary for a hike and then we have the Saint Saëns concert tomorrow night. Sunday it’s supposed to rain so we’re just going to visit Spruce Grove and watch the Star Trek movie that came out a couple of weeks ago. Monday we’re off to Jasper and then Banff for a couple weeks before heading west and then south back into the US.

Dinner was some Roasted Garlic Quinoa with chicken and onions and some baked Winter Squash which Neil doctored up with brown sugar, cinnamon, toasted pecans, and butter. It was really tasty and we had a wine cooler with it. We’re almost out of wine so getting more wine and some groceries is on our list for tomorrow or Sunday.

Cyas.

Today dawned as a really beautiful day; brilliant blue sky, a few scattered clouds and really pleasant temps in the upper 50’s when we left about 1030 for our field trip to the Clifford E Lee Nature Sanctuary nearby run by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. After a 15 minute or so drive straight down Highway 60 outside Glowing Embers Campground we arrived at the parking area, changed into our hiking boots, and headed off. Our total hike was about 3 miles of which almost 2 were on a boardwalk through the marsh and along the edge of the lake on the sanctuary.

Our first find shortly after leaving the parking area was a Yellow Warbler.

followed by some dandelion blooms and a bright red dragonfly

After half a mile or so we got to the first of three overlooks jutting out into the lake. While at these overlooks we spotted a plethora of waterfowl of various varieties including Blue Winged Teal

Ruddy Duck

and a pair of nesting Canada Geese across the other side of the lake.

We spotted in addition some Bufflehead Ducks, Coots, a lot of Red Winged Blackirds and what we thought were Northern Shovelers but none were close enough for a decent picture.

Leaving the lakeside and heading into the woods we spotted a Tamarac tree which looks like an evergreen but is actually deciduous, losing it’s needles every fall. Moose eat the needles and alongside the maybe 1/2 inch long needles were the daintiest little buds you’ve ever seen.

They look almost exactly like miniature rosebuds but are only about 1/4 inch in size. We also spotted a Robin right before we left the boardwalk and took awhile to identify him because the variation up here in Alberta is a lot longer and skinnier than Robins back home in the US…and they also spend a lot of time in this display position with their wings sort of spread out.

During our walk in the wooded portion of the sanctuary we spotted some more wildflowers and some sort of tree that was releasing a thistle like spore.

as well as spotting this little orange and black butterfly.

After a mile or so in the woods we rejoined the boardwalk and hiked back to the parking area where we headed home for lunch. Tonight we’re headed to the Sherlock Holmes Pub in downtown Edmonton for pints and snacks then right around the corner from the pub is the Windspear Center where the Saint Saëns concert takes place. Tomorrow it’s church, drop by the library for blog posting since internet is lousy in the campground, the Star Trek movie in Spruce Grove and then a stop at Walmart on the way home…we need to make sure we have groceries for the next 10 days as stores in Jasper are few and far between.

Cyas.