2012/07 Western Canada trip - Maligne Canyon |
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Saturday July 21st
It was a wet morning and very dark under the trees. We set off for the Maligne Lake area on the other side of the town of Jasper, hoping to leave the rain 
behind.
Our first stop was at the Maligne Canyon. The river there begins at ground level and then drops into a narrow canyon, roaring over cascades and waterfalls. The walkways and bridges are well done, much safer than on our last visit. Edna and I took the walk down, but John decided not to risk it; he’d crashed badly there last time. The water was getting wilder as we walked down and there seemed to be more of it. We came to a place where a waterfall gushed out of a cave into the main stream and there we read that the river is fed by caves that drain the water out of nearby Medicine Lake.
After a long climb back up to the top I visited the shop/cafe, mainly to see if they had dusted the hundred thousand dollar carvings. Many 
years ago we declined to eat there, reckoning that if they couldn’t be bothered to clean the jade, what would their kitchen be like? This time, the million dollar bear carvings were clean, but the shop had an enormous inventory of expensive Inuit carvings packed so tightly in their display cases that they couldn’t be seen properly.
We drove a few miles to Medicine Lake; a large body of water in early summer, but it steadily drains out through its bottom as the year progresses. We’ve seen it half full in September. Before the road was built the draining interfered with the ferry service and the locals tried to fill up the holes in the bottom by dropping in rocks and clay, but it didn’t work. We saw these pikas there. 
[Three weeks after we drove along the lake shore a heavy thunderstorm caused an avalanche that pushed the road into the lake. Nobody was hurt but the road was closed for a few days and some people were helicoptered out.]
At the end of the road is Maligne Lake, mainly famous for its boat trips out to see Spirit Island, one of most frequently photographed spots in Canada. It was too cold and windy for a boat trip this time, and John and Edna took off for a walk while I took a driver’s doze.
As we drove back into the town of Jasper, we came across a herd of elk, with this bull in charge. We did a little shopping in Jasper, 
actually very little because of the prices. After getting used to American prices for groceries, Edna had been shaken by the prices in Drumheller, realizing why so many Canadians cross the border for their food shopping. Jasper, being a resort area, is expensive even by Canadian standards, so we didn’t buy much.
Jasper was our first location in a while with cell phone access so I called Sandie. Stew had flown out to join the family and they were heading back to Okotoks with the canoe on the roof and pulling their trailer.