Jasper-Maligne Canyon-Lake Louise

Question: How many Canada Parks officers does it take to issue a mandatory Discovery Pass to a couple of seniors?
Answer: Five!

Before driving out of Jasper, we finally found a place where we could purchase our Seniors Discovery Passes for the Canadian national parks. This was the Parks Canada Office located next to the Jasper Station (aka Gare de Jasper). We had a very lovely and comical interaction there with the staff, beginning with a really engaging woman who was temping at the front desk. She didn’t know how to issue the passes, so she called another staff member who had trouble with computer system. Then a third person was called who also had trouble, followed by a fourth. Finally the boss was called who was able to fix it. It was all very jolly and we were happy to get our passes. We also were told of a good little walk at Maligne (pronounced “Maleen”, not “Maline”) Canyon.

After a fabulous flat white coffee ( did you know Australians invented this form of coffee?) and half a white chocolate and cranberry “scone” (more like a rock cake) at the famous Bear’s Paw 🐾 Bakery, we hightailed it to Maligne Canyon. After our stunning walk there, we started our drive back down the Icefields Parkway to our digs in Lake Louise.

This trip had everything: blinding sunshine, snow showers, wind etc and the scenery again was spectacular. We were glad to arrive at check-in time at Lake Louise Inn which was simply bursting with activity. Although the Spring Break is supposed to be over, there are kids everywhere, often with grandparents or in excursion groups. I guess there is an explosion of activity once the winter has finally begun to recede. Everyone seems very jolly and on the whole so far we have found Canadians to be a happy, warm, obliging and friendly people. The sense of despair we felt momentary in one small area of Vancouver seems in the whole to be a slight (although serious) anomaly.

After a good night’s sleep, we awoke to our car covered in snow. It will be a slow start this morning for our trip to Drumheller. ❄️❄️❄️Les mer