Trains and Grizzly Bears, A Canadian Roadtrip - Rocky Mountaineer Day 8

Monday, September 9 - Jasper National Park

Today we have a tour of the highlights of Jasper.  It didn’t start until 9:15 so once again we could sleep in until 8:00.  When we got up, the sky was heavily overcast and it was drizzling outside.  We discussed just cancelling it, but decided to go ahead and do it and we were very glad we did.  We went down and joined our fellow Rocky Mountaineers and got on our tour bus.

There are quite a few elk around the hotel area and as we left the hotel, we saw some along the road including a huge buck.  Unfortunately we weren’t quick enough with the camera to take any pictures, but we have plenty of elk pictures from previous trips. 

Our first stop was Maligne Canyon which is a slot canyon with a maximum depth of about 160 feet.  We took a short hike along the top and it was like walking through a rainforest.  It was wet, but not raining and getting a little lighter so the day started to look more promising.  

From there, our next stop was Medicine Lake which was interesting because the lake would be completely gone in a few weeks.  Evidently it fills up in the spring from the glacial snow melt and then quickly empties in the fall.  It is drained by the Maligne River that formed the canyon we visited earlier.

Medicine Lake

You may have to click in this picture to see the detail, but that is an eagle flying in with another adult sitting on the nest.  To the right of the second eagle, there are three little heads sticking up waiting for lunch.  The picture was taken with a long telephoto and cropped and is not very clear, but you can definitely see the eagles.

Our next stop was Maligne Lake where we had another buffet lunch.  On our way there our bus driver told us that the buffet at Maligne Lake was 1,000 times better than the one we’d had in the Icefields and he was right.  The food was all very good and we really enjoyed our lunch, the difference was night and day from yesterday. 

We had signed up for a boat cruise on the Maligne Lake so while most of the tour headed back to the lodge, 11 of us went on the boat tour. We had some time before the boat left so we walked around and explored the area, but we were soon on our way.  Maligne Lake is a very large lake and we spent about 40 minutes making our way to an island where we could get off and explore a little.  The island is only an island when the lake is high, but it didn’t really matter as it was a beautiful spot.  Our exploring was limited to a single trail, but we really enjoyed our visit and took many pictures.

As we completed our after lunch stroll, we could see the dock where we would catch our boat.

Val is waiting for boarding to start.

And we are on our way.

 

We got back on the boat and made our way back to where we would catch our bus back to the lodge.  It was a 90 minute boat tour and we really enjoyed it.  It was still cloudy, but the sun did poke out a bit and it had turned into a really nice day; we were very glad we hadn’t cancelled the tour.

We had a bit of a wait for the bus to get back to we walked around and I bought a new t-shirt in the store and then we found some chairs and relaxed until the bus arrived.  The highlight of the trip back was a moose sighting, but they were already moving out of the area and we barely saw them.

We weren't in time to get a good view of the moose, but you can still see him back in the woods in the middle of the picture.

Back at the lodge, we relaxed a bit and then got ourselves ready for dinner at the Orso Trattoria Italian Restaurant in the hotel.  Our meal was good, but I was a little disappointed as the food was based on Northern Italian cuisine and I prefer Southern, but we nonetheless enjoyed our dinner.

A couple of pictures of the view from our balcony.  The lake is Lac Beauvert.

Those cabins are part of the lodge, but considering the weather, we were glad to be staying in the main lodge.

Tomorrow we get back on the train and start our journey back to Vancouver so we had to check in with a Rocky Mountaineer Representative tonight and get our boarding passes.  Check-in started at 7:00 so we thought by having our dinner around that time we would miss the initial rush and not have to wait, but we were wrong.  When we went to the check-in area after dinner, we found a long slow moving line.  It didn’t really matter as we found ourselves in line behind the same people we had met in line when we initially checked in back in Vancouver, what a coincidence.  They are very nice and the time went by quickly as we had a nice conversation.

Finally it was our turn to check-in and then we returned to our room for an early bedtime as we have to get up at 5:00 AM tomorrow to catch the bus to the train station.  We will be traveling from Jasper to Quesnel, BC tomorrow on the train.