Day 40 Fri-Majestic Mountians & Lakes

Today is Canada 🇨🇦 Day here!
A late start doing blog and getting ours done….Didn’t leave until 1030 then I forgot my backpack with all my water, hat, coat pm extra camera batteries etc…So we had to Turn around…

So finally on the Hwy heading to Maligne Canyon, the view of the Lakes either side of us as we headed back towards Jasper looked u real in the morning like…unfortunately you can’t actually pull up to sine of the Turquoise coloured ones on our left as we headed back…so as John says picture it in your mind…..we arrived at the Canyon along with heaps and heaps of others….and set off on the Path heading to do bridges 1-4 …..they go from 1-6 however 5 &6 are further away and we didn’t have a lot of time if we planned to see other Lakes today so deciding to go from Bridge No2 first as it was closest to the car park was our first decision…..The Canyon drops down about 51m of craggy uneven slim drop at the bottom of it is this sheer force of amazing water pressure being forced through at a rate if knots…..unreal to hear it’s roar…as we walked further I should have guessed yep the path had to go down the mountain didn’t it,,.but in honest truth it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be….steps down then flatish paths lots of mud you had to keep ducking and weaving around….on one spot you had to straddle a small skinny log to walk over the mud…
Bridges 3&4 didn’t disappoint…tiny wild flowers 🌸 dotted here and there…and the marvel for me which I was more in awe of was all the moss giving the whole area a real fairy garden feel….where the spray from the sheer force of the water being hurled down the canyon was thick carpeted so lush and just looked beautiful…. We go to the end of this area having seen many areas of honed out rocks with a smooth pool like affect from the swirling forceful waters….
Back we headed went to get back over the skinny log and there was a massive line up on the other side…a huge amount of what I would say are Chinese tourist, because they were the ones running,,,I was sure some would fall on their faces as they tore over the uneven paths…one women pushed past us waiting patiently to take our turn on the log…even getting on there when others were on it pushing them into the mud.,,I couldn’t help myself and spoke up say good on you LOVE….hoping she would hear me,,,,hightail of rudeness…but in all honesty that’s what happens in China…first in first served no such thing as waiting for your turn in line especially ladies loos they push and shove while your being polite and patient they have bold you over and pushed you out of the way…while there I had to quickly learn to do the same….which goes against our better judgment and Curtesy we have been bought up with…Anyway back to the log…I had a little Indian Couple waiting patiently also the man even with his polite manners to,d me to go first… so unlike the other Chinese lady…the thing is she ran all,that way to get ahead then had to wait for her mother to join her 😩🤪🤔…..Anyway we found a shortcut back so we could head to theTea house restaurant for lunch and see Bridge No 1….It certainly didn’t disappoint at all with more massive honed out rounded areas in the rock below from the swelling waters….over the No1 bridge was the raging river tearing down the mountain entering the Canyon..it really was a sight to behold….
Having finished the Canyon we headed into the lovely Teahouse… very well set up, had a really lovely atmosphere…We sat out on the deck where we could see the raging river at the top of the Canyon…what a sight to witness while having lunch…we ordered A special for John Poultine which is a Canadian speciality of Chips, Cheese Curds, Gravey and each place adds its own take this one had Ketchup and sausages through it …plus he got a pint of Beer as the special…I got Chicken Wings and ohh my glory the plate was loaded with about 12 or more…I could only eat 5 and that was pushing it…such a waste to have left them…I wanted to give them to a couple sitting near us with a dog but John was quite insistent NO….
As we left there heaps and heaps of busses and yep Chinese tourist running to catch they bus before it left without them…

Onto our next sight which was Medicine Lake it was absolutely massive and was surrounded by acres of burnt trees. My glory it must have been a ferocious fire to cause the damage it did…Tim later to,d us it happened 40yrs ago…🤔🤔🤔 As we drive around it..I asked John to let me out to grab some shots of the reflections across the lake…at the spot I got out were clusters of the prettiest, lake yellow bell type flowers…the same type but dark apricot and then some burnt orangey red ones…all stunning all so different….what a bonus….

We kept going on around Medicine Lake onto Maligne Lake where you could get a boat tour around this Lake….sadly we didn’t have time….Jess and Tim had done it earlier…good thing we didn’t plan on doing it…just as we arrived it started to hail on us, not heavy hail but hail never the less….It subsided but the air sure was cold…We hopped out around the side where they out in the canoes…sadly with the cloud over Lake the colour of the ICE BLUE in all the pics….I was to say disappointed… Tim showed me his pics later that night of their cruise…and ohh my glory were they stunning…the colours with the sun on them was just magical….I took some pics of the little boats coming and going on the other side to us…they kind of got lost in the oic with the massive expanse of water…finished there and after taking with Jess later I think she thought we had miss a great opportunity not doing the cruise…but it was very fortunate that they went at a good time…if we had gone when we got there the colours wouldn’t have been as magical…just not meant to be…
Off we set going back past Medicine Lake again….to Overhang area that you were supposed to be able to see the end of the Canyon…but they must have had accidents or something in that area because it was a massive cement lookout area now and you really couldn’t see much at all..I think every person who came there would like us felt it was a waste of advertising to go there and felt let down..,the others there all expressed like us…how disappointed they were…
So onto Lake Edith and Lake Annette….Turns out these 2 areas are overly popular people everywhere..,A Massive very expensive resort…Yes the Lakes both stunning but getting a park to capture them was difficult…I managed to grab a few shots….but again with cloud around the colours weren’t their best…
With having done that we drove into Jasper to check out the streets and grab a coffee…Really Jasper is full of tourist shops every 2nd shop was either a restaurant or a tourist shop…darned if I knew how they all survive….It really wasn’t an interesting town compared to Banff which was very pretty..It does have a Tram Car that goes up a massive mountain like Banff but we didn’t have time to do it and it was very expensive….Had our coffee wandered around killing time to meet for Dinner with Tim and Jess. We ended up calling them if we could come to their motel to get dressed…Their room I was surprised to see was heaps smaller than what I thought as ours as a crappy motel..,but in actual fact it’s pretty good all in all….
We tired to have drinks before dinner at their Bar at the hotel…but it was packed to the eyeballs with older groups of bus tourer people…all at least 60-70+ 🤪🤪🤪 like us ha ha….

So off to find our Dinner place at Pine Lodge Kumana Bistro and Canteen..turns out this place was out of town and it was a resort with dozens of cute little log cabins.. and all taken..,very busy…plus a big bus tour again older folk tuned up while we were having dinner…The service was fantastic…the meals all extremely tasty….Jess and John had Bison Pasta dish…Tim a Pork dish and me Mushroom Tart…all very very tasty…the messed up John’s dinner so he got a free Beer🍺 so he was a happy customer indeed.
Dinner all done a toast to Tim and Jess as this is our last meal with them until we return to their home …on the 9and 10th July then we head off again..
On our way out we managed to see up close an Elk female feeding so bonus..
We headed down the Hwy to the most stunning scenes of clouds spilling over the mountains in such away it looked like swelling smoke 💨…..Plus bonus the sun started to glow over the mountains and clouds it truly looked unreal….I must have taken 30 or more pics it was so awe inspiring….
Before we left Tim and Jess, Jess made us promise we would go to Beaver Boardwalk to see the Beavers….Well it was raining on the way back we didn’t think we could…but once back the rain eased off it was 9,40pm as we set out in the boardwalk..what a bonus it was nit inky for the views over the Beavers habitat area p, but we got to witness one or maybe 2 beavers at work…we saw 2 but not sure it wasn’t the same one..either way it was magic to see gage little fella at work collecting grass we even saw him swim underwater with the grass in his mouth…he really was a bust beaver 😂😂😂😂…. That was a magic day again,..It will be sad to leave this amazing area of Gods perfect creation…We have been very blessed to have witnessed the sights we have this last week…tomorrow we head back towards the Paire’s again….Read more