Weather: Overcast, slightly cool.
We got lucky again today - all becasue Pauline was late on the bus again.
As we left Jasper on our way to Maligne Lake (pronounced Ma-leen), there were 9 female elk sitting down by the side of the road, just watching the cars go by. A few minutes later, the shout of "bear! bear!" filled the bus. Victor imediately stopped (luckily he wasnt going very fast!) and reversed the bus back very slowly, as a small balck bear was crossing the road behind our bus.
We all got pretty good photos and videos as the bear stopped right beside the road and started grazing on the grass. It was a fanatastic start and we were all on a high, keeping our eyes out for further animals.
A few minutes later, "deer! deer!" could be heard but didn't get much of a reaction. There were three deer grazing just off the side of the road. It was a case of "oh, it's just deer" and no one took any photos. Once you've seen a grizzly and a black bear, a deer just can't compare.
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| Maligne Lake |
Once we arrived at Maligne Lake, there was plenty of time for pictures. There were two guys shovelling snow from around the boat house as it had snowed overnight. The lake looks pretty spectacular with all the melting snow and ice covering it.
It was then time to head off to Maligne Canyon where we got to walk around the path and take photos of the small waterfall, before having lunch at the restaurant at the end of the track.
On the way back to town, we stopped off at the hotel first for those who didn't want to go into town. The rest of us were off to town.
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| Small waterfall at Maligne Canyon |
Anyway, as Marilyn hadn't seen the town as she had gong rafting, we headed off on our discovery tour. She also had the same reaction as I did - not much to see. We did explore the other street that runs parallel to the main strip. It has more shops like two chemists - one a Pharma Save and the other a Drug Store, have no idea what the difference was but they were practically next door to each other. We also discovered a small supermarket and, of course, plenty of gift shops. I gave into temptation and bought bear paw earrings and a Canada beanie. I'll probably regret my purchases later.
As Marilyn and I had signed up for the 6pm walk/hike, we headed back to the hotel and had some free time before having dinner at the hotel restaurant. As elsewhere in Canada, our waitress was a young girl from the Gold Coast here in Canada on a working holiday.
Our hike was a bust. We didn't see any wildlife while we were walking through the frorest but we managed to see some beavers barely at work - and at a very far distance. Very disappointing. Oh well. You can't be too greedy. The other people that were on our hike were from another tour group and they hadn't seen any bears so we've been extremely lucky.
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| Pyramid Lake and Pyramid Mountain |
After our walk, I was really tired so it was off to bed for me.
Tomorrow, we're off to Lac Lajeune. It'll be interesting as Pauline told us that our hotel doesn't have a telephone, television, let alone internet access. We were told it will be like going back in time. Hmmmm.... don't know if I want to go back in time.
Then, it's off to Vancouver and the end of this tour.
