Jasper National Park

Alberta, Canada

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

August 11^th, 2019

Quote: “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek with our eyes open.” -Jawaharial Nehru

We left Calgary and headed north towards Jasper. We planned to stay a week and then head south to Banff, taking in Canada’s best national parks, the Canadian Rockies. They were spectacular! With less people we saw wildlife everyday with bears being the most consistent in our camera lenses.

Lake Maligne was our first look at the turquoise water caused by the glacier flour, changing the refraction of light of the water, pictures just don’t do it justice! We took a boat cruise on the lake that took us to Spirit Island, an island made famous in a Kodak contest from 1960 that was displayed in NYC Grand Central Station for months on a wall 18’ x 60’. That was a sight to behold in person!

We were lucky enough to have some friends from Dow, who live in Alberta,Canada come over to meet us for lunch. It was so nice visiting with Gary and Ken which had given us a lot of advice on what to see and do while in Canada. Thank you guys for making that long drive.

Lake Maligne Boat Cruise

Lake Maligne was discovered by an American and a woman named Mary Schaffer, which was very rare for the time, who after the death of her husband returned to the Canadian Rockies to finish his book on botany of the area. She was asked by the Canadian government to survey the area and with the help of Sampson & Leah Beaver (indigenous people) mapped the area and named the surrounding lake and peaks. She continued to lobby the government to include this as part of the proposed National Park.

Spirit Island, is a small island which is revered to the Native Americans. It is a sacred place to the indigenous people and certain times of the year they come and preform ceremonies at the island yearly.

The finger lake is about 9 miles long and 50 to 90 meters deep with no powered boat traffic past Spirit Island which leaves the box canyon surrounding the 4 miles of the lake to canoe traffic or snowshoeing in the winter when temperatures can reach -64F, the coldest in Canada.

JoAnn at Honeymoon lake. We had to hike a ways back to get here in rubber boots.

Animals Everywhere

The scenery of Jasper is breathtaking and the animals are abundant. We finally saw mountain goats, perched on a high ledge, big horn sheep licking the rocks in the road, eagles and bears every day.

Ice Walkers - Athabasca Glacier

The images from a safety film at work we watched each winter "walk like a penguin', came back to me as we stepped off the arctic bus with six-foot-tall tires onto the Athabasca Glacier. This glacier is one of the glaciers that are fed from the Columbia Icefield and like many of the worlds glaciers is receding. It is only 60% of what it was in the 1844 at the end of the last mini ice age. The ice bus crossed the lateral moraine, rocks the glacier had pushed up along each side and down a 40%+ grade onto the Icefield where we stopped and got to walk no the glacier. The color of the blue ice was like a topaz shinning in the sun and the water rushing down was clear and cold. We collected a bottle of water and enjoyed the crisp refreshing drink. The water from this Icefield drains into three oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific and the Arctic. What a special place to visit!

Glacier well on the on Athabasca glacier

What we Learned:

- Canadian Rockies has two seasons, winter and construction. - The Canadian Rockies are spectacular, with glaciers that make them special. - The water in these glacier fed lakes is a color that is hard to believe really exist in nature.