Dateline: Jasper, Alberta. After a couple of somewhat sunny days, we had a gloomy one today. Not much rain, just gray skies and cool temperatures. We took a run out to the east entrance of the park, then back and down the road to Maligne Lake. On the way there we saw a very healthy looking black bear, and got some good pix (see him at cruztalking.blogspot.com). We also saw maybe twenty wild sheep, just hanging around the Yellowhead Highway east of Jasper townsite. At other times today we saw a couple of very grand looking bull elk, antlers still in velvet of course. It was a good day for animal watching, one of the things for which we come to national parks.
Maligne Lake was all cold blues, cool grays, and blackish greens today, in the absence of the sun. Not a great day to go for a lakeside walk, but we did check out the boat house that has been there more-or-less forever. There were a number of canoeists on the lake, keeping warm with the paddling effort. On our way back we stopped at Maligne Canyon, which is this really narrow, really deep gorge cut by the stream. It is over 150 ft. deep and in places no wider than what you could span with your two arms.
Back in Jasper townsite we saw the Via Rail passenger train pull into town, probably inbound from Prince Rupert on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia. This is a fine train trip, if you enjoy train travel and scenery. The other DrC and I have taken The Skeena, as it is called, twice and would love to do it again. Put ridingThe Skeena on your list of “things to do before you die.”
