Crid's 1999 Grand Tour of Canada

3 weeks travelling by train from Toronto to Vancouver

Day 15 (Saturday) - Jasper (Angels on Aspen B&B)

I went for a wander around the townsite.  Visited the museum.  It's quite small but definitely worth a visit.  It covers the history of Jasper very well.  (Jasper's history is largely based around the railway, then later on tourism to the National Park).

I decided to take a coach trip to Maligne Lake (pronounced "Maleen").  Grabbed a quick KFC burger between visiting the museum and getting on the bus (I almost though I wasn't going to make it).

The coach ride to the lake was about an hour, and the views was lovely.  Our driver pointed out places of interest along the way.  We stopped at Medicine Lake, which is a strange lake which seems to fill and empty without involving the river downstream.  In fact, the lake itself feeds an underground river, which resurfaces several miles downstream.

I've been really lucky with the weather so far, and today was no exception.  We had clear skies in Jasper and although it was a bit cloudy up by the lake, we didn't have any rain.

Saw some wildlife on the coach (well the wildlife wasn't on the coach, obviously).  We saw some elk by a lake (and lots of people parked nearby, watching them).  We also saw some Bighorn Sheep, who were taking great delight in stopping traffic on the road.

We had a 35 minute boat ride to the far end of the lake, where we spent about 10 minutes before coming back.  Lots of chances to take photographs.  It was a really enjoyable trip, and I'm really glad I went.

The water in the rivers is unbelievably blue.  This is mainly because the water comes straight from glaciers, and is full of minerals.  Maligne Lake is an unusual lake because the colour of the water gradually changes as you go from one end to the other.  This is because the minerals are gradually settling to the bottom.  All the time the river is running quickly, it has no chance for this to happen.  When the river comes to a lake, the water slows down and the minerals can fall away.

I got stuck in the gift shop behind a group of Japanese tourists.  I was waiting at the till to pay for my one item.  They were in front of me and appeared to be buying the entire contents of the shop.

In the evening I visited an excellent restaurant called Karouzo's.  I had clam chowder, an excellent steak and an even more excellent toffee mousse.  All of the restaurants I have visited in Jasper have been excellent.

Packed up all my baggage in preparation for an early start tomorrow.  I'll have to leave the B&B at 6.30am!  The owners have very kindly offered to drive me to the station, which is better than having to lug my heavy baggage through the town.  (And you never know what kind of wildlife you might encounter in the townsite at that time of the morning).

 

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