2023 Canada – Around Jasper

We woke up to a cold rainy day this morning, so we scrubbed the Jasper Sky Tram because it would have just been heading into the clouds anyway. We’ve had breakfast included at this hotel, so we had the buffet breakfast before hitting the road. I have to say that I really don’t see the value in breakfast buffets, you pay more than you would for A La Carte and the food is often half cold and not necessarily what is wanted in the first place. I don’t eat a huge breakfast so I rarely go back for seconds or thirds.

Anyway, with breakfast done we jumped in the car and our first stop was Maligne Canyon which is the deepest canyon in Jasper National Park, with a depth of more than 50 metres at certain points. There are six bridges built across various points of the canyon of which we did the first three. Maligne Canyon is known as a ‘slot canyon’ which make it very narrow and deep. While hard to capture good photos there are lots of amazing views of the many waterfalls and ravines.

From there we jumped back in the car and our next stop was Medicine Lake which takes glacial water from the Maligne River. It’s water levels often fluctuate because it is one of the entry points to a massive network of underground rivers that feed many of the lakes in this part of the world. At certain times of the year, Medicine Lake is almost empty, but in spring fills up when all the snow melts.

After Medicine Lake we drove the rest of the way to Maligne Lake which is set in between two mountain ranges. It sits at approximately 1,670 m above sea level. The Charlton-Unwin, Maligne, and Coronet glaciers are visible from the lake. The Charlton-Unwin glacier is shrinking fast and scientist believe it will be completely gone in the 100 years.

Maligne Lake is also the location of two of Alberta’s most historic buildings, the Maligne Lake Chalet and accompanying guest house that were built in 1927. For a time, the Maligne Lake Chalet was the largest, most luxurious accommodation in Jasper National Park. The other historic building is the boathouse, built by Donald “Curly” Phillips in 1928 to accommodate his wilderness guiding and fishing business. He actually stocked the lake with trout, so people could come and fish. Philips resided in his boathouse until his death in an avalanche in 1936, aged 52. The historic buildings are maintained by Maligne Lake Tours who we did our cruise with to Spirit Island, which isn’t an Island at the moment due to the current water levels. The lake actually completely freezes over in winter as temperatures drop to around -40 degrees Celsius.

The road from Jasper to Maligne Lake is particularly abundant with wildlife. Today we were able to add a black bear and some mountain goats to our wildlife scorecard. We did see a couple of female Elk on the way into the hotel as well as some canadian geese on the lawns on our way back to our room. Those geese can certainly poop A LOT!

As the rain came in this afternoon, we headed back to the hotel for a pre-dinner drink and then a feed. I had an ‘Old-Fashioned’, while Deb had a ‘Vodka Mule’. For dinner, I had a Bison fillet and some apple pie for dessert, while Deb had the lobster mac cheese and a creme brulee. The Bison was similar to beef, but perhaps a bit stronger in flavour and a little more lean.

We leave this hotel tomorrow as we head to Lake Louise. We have been a little disappointed with this particular Fairmont. It was pretty pricey, but we’ve found the service has been just a bit off the mark and the rooms are a touch dated. The bathrooms are very small and quite impractical. After our experience at the Empress, I guess it was always going to be hard to keep up the standard!

Until tomorrow!