Journey Day 12 - Sunwapta Falls to Jasper

Another day of in and out of the vehicle and a mass of cluttered memories so I will work the same as yesterday's blog and base around stopping points. Today was fairly short in miles but intentionally slow in the hope of seeing wildlife.

To our delight, we woke to another sunny day; our luck is holding. Breakfast was orange juice, coffee, cereal and muffin in our lodge then we were out on the road at 9.

Highway 95 North

A short run North on highway 95

Mountain view from roadside; highway 95

Black Bear Sighting

The vehicle in front of use suddenly braked and pulled over; as we steered past we saw what they were looking at, a black bear just in the woods. Before I could get the camera, traffic including a motorbike passed close to the bear and it disappeared into the trees. We did see its bear behind though, honest!

Goats and Glaciers

A small pull in puzzlingly called Goats and Glaciers had neither, however, it did have wide views of the flat valley bottom with the river spreading across it.

Highway 93A

We turned off the main highway 95 route to Jasper into highway 93A, a much smaller road reputed to be good for wildlife sightings. A single carriageway road, largely 60 kph max. running through pine woods.

Lakeside Pull-in

Unfortunately I failed to note down the name of this lake just off the road but it was worth photographing.

Unknown Lake, 93A

Bear Sighting 2

Several vehicles pulled up following one spotting a Black Bear in the woods opposite. This was a better sighting as we did actually see the whole bear including as it slumped off into the wood.We were too busy looking at it to take good photo's but here is evidence.

Black Bear; head toward camera

Black Bear; heading off into trees

Jasper

We arrived in Jasper around 10:30 and spent an hour exploring shops for such diverse items as a fridge magnet of the Trans Canadian Highway, a bottle of 7UP and a can of OFF! mosquito repellent.

Jasper is a pleasant town so don't be put off that I only photographed the mountains over the busy railway yard.

Maligne Lake Road

With lunch purchased, we headed out of town again down another valley to the South East leading to Maligne Lake. This again was marked as a wildlife hotspot.

Maligne Canyon

The canyon is a water course running through soft limestone which has dug itself a deep channel, gorge, canyon...whatever you like to call it.  Difficult to photograph but very impressive especially the phenomenal power of the water forced through narrow gaps. 

Various walks on offer and we took the 4 Bridges route which took us along the canyon downhill crossing the chasm at several points before climbing back to the the car park.

Medicine Lake

We stopped in a lay by backed onto Medicine Lake to eat our picnic lunch in our now favorite position of sitting on the tailgate. The lake was stunning with its mountain backdrop though if we looked over our shoulder the hillside was scarred by a wildfire in recent years.

Medicine Lake ; lunch view 

Medicine Lake; burnt out trees

Bighorn Sheep

Traffic was brought toa halt at this point by a family of Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn Sheep ; Medicine Lake

Lake Maligne

Lake Maligne itself is at the end of the valley and,being outside the national parks, is more commercial with tour boats and canoe hire being particularly popular. 

We thought we had done well with parking as we took a chance and went passed the main lot and found a space in a small one near the lake side. We gathered our things together and set off to Moose Lake loop only to be met by a trail Closed sign. 

View from near Moose Lake trail head; Lake Maligne

 A bit miffed, we returned to the car and moved back up to the main car park where luckily we got a space as someone left.
Second attempt we set off on the Mary Sheaffer loop trail.

Lake Maligne tourist boatquay

Viewpoint on Mary Shaeffer trail; Lake Maligne

Return to Jasper

As we returned to the car park at Maligne Lake, the skies had darkened and rain was in the air. We decided to return to Jasper having previously considered hanging around till dusk in the hopeof seeing animals.

On the way back, we crawled along at 50 kph but saw nothing other that the same group of Bighorn Sheep again.
When we walked the Canyon earlier in the day, we limited our route to bridges 1-4 so we took the opportunity to visit 5 and 6 via side roads.  By now,the canyon was open and by bridge 6 was just a very powerful river heading to join the main river 100m downstream We were glad we hadn't pushed on and walked it earlier.

Maligne Canyon river at Bridge 6

Evening in Jasper shopping for next 24 hours when we are in a remote area of the Park and eating.
Goodnight.

Today's Statistics

Statistics: Miles today: 101; Miles so far: 2829 ; Fuel added so far: 267.5 litres, 58.8 imp gals; Provinces: Alberta; Time Zone: UTC-6 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)