Skytram, Jasper
Jasper from top of Skytram
Maligne Canyon
Maligne Lake
Spirit Island, Maligne Lake
Maligne Lake, Jasper
Maligne Lake, Jasper
Being in Jasper immediately creates the dilemma of planning one’s activities as there’s so much to do!
We decided that as having only one day in this region we’d start with a trip on the Jasper Tramway. Although it wouldn’t happen today, but back in the 1960s in an era when mechanical geeks were experimenting with fancy new gimmicks, the Jasper park authorities built this high-speed (gondola) cable car up 973 m to a lofty knoll on Whistler’s Mountain at 2466 m.
At the top of the cable car’s travel we then commenced a 2 km steep walk to a further mountain plateau where the eastern peaks of Mt. Edith Cavell, Throne Mountain and Blackhorn Peak were clearly visible.
The views from the upper station of the tramway were spectacular and the town of Jasper below on this sunny day was crystal clear as were the surrounding kettle lakes which had shades of aqua and turquoise.
From this high viewpoint we could see down below, following the Miette River valley, two massive freight trains travelling in opposite directions both leaving from Jasper. One train was 169 carriages long (someone counted them!) and we estimated it to be about 4 km long.
The river system within the valley below was very complex with a number of smaller streams like the Miette all draining into the large Athabasca River which heads north and arrives at the Arctic Sea.
After a brief coffee break we bought salad rolls and headed out southwards towards Lake Maligne.
Our first stop was at the Maligne Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the Canadian Rockies. This canyon was formed by waters cutting through limestone at the end of the last ice-age. Sections of the gorge are 15 m deep and in places only 2 m wide. The extraordinarily narrow ravine carries a large volume of water so the view from above is quite mesmerising. We followed a meandering riverside path that traversed five narrow bridges across the canyon. The limestone rock features a water eroded web of potholes and numerous fossils. The rocks are lichen covered and the spruce forest adjacent to the gorge creates a wonderland of natural beauty.
We then drove on to Medicine Lake which is a natural rarity. The lake functions like a plugless bath, filling up during summer when the run-off of melt water from the surrounding mountains is high. In winter when the run-off slows due to ice forming, the lake begins to drain and the level can drop by as much as 20 m. What is happening is that the water is draining out of the lake via a number of small holes in its floor and into a complex underground cave system that re-emerges 16 km downstream near the Maligne Canyon.
An attempt in the 1950s to plug the lake’s drain holes with sandbags, mattresses and bundles of magazines all proved futile!
Our final destination for this busy day was to go to Maligne Lake and do the boat trip out to Spirit Island. This lake enjoys pride of place in most Canadian tourists’ itineraries. The lake is 22 km long from north to south and quite narrow. The lake is totally surrounded by a bevy of photogenic mountain peaks some of which are snow covered and have pendulous glaciers sending streams of icy water into the amazingly blue waters of the lake.
The lake is best described as a ‘stunner’ and we had very good weather conditions to see it although some of the higher peaks were a little cloudy. The scene had us enraptured and left us searching for superlatives.
The culmination of the boat trip is to reach Spirit Island, a speck of tree covered land (actually a mini-peninsula). This tiny island forms a perfect foreground for photographers wishing to show the spectacular high mountain snow peaks behind and the glacial blue waters between. Sadly there was too much breeze for us to get reflections but we could imagine the splendour nonetheless.
We then headed back to Jasper and bought lasagnes, vegetables, fruit and other goodies and prepared dinner in our hotel suite.
This has been a magic day with too many wondrous things to adequately describe but tomorrow we’ll head down to Lake Louise and from all reports, we’re in for more visually spectacular scenery.
The Canadian Rockies have exceeded our expectations in terms of their grandeur and spectacular beauty!