The first day, we went into town, did some grocery shopping and walked around. It reminded me a lot of Banff with all the outdoor sport shops all in similar styles. It was nice to see the train station in the downtown.
The next day we took a drive to Maligne lake. Before going to the lake, we did a 4.4km hike into Maligne Canyon. The trail followed the Maligne river. We walked from bridge #2 – #5 and then back. It was about 1 hour 45 minutes total (because of all the stops for pictures!).
Then, we made the drive down to Lake Maligne which was about 35 minutes away. I had seen pictures so I was quite excited. I figured it would be beautiful and because it was early May, not very many tourists would be there. Well, I was 3/4 right. It didn’t have many people and it was nice to look at, but of course, I didn’t take into consideration that it would still be frozen. We didn’t get to see the crystal blue/green water, but it was still nice to look at with the mountains surrounding it.
We got back to our campsite around 2pm and relaxed, read, and had dinner. We then ventured into town again get some Wifi at Timmie’s and then watch the sunset out at Pyramid Lake.
Day 3 we drove the Icefield parkway down to the Columbia Icefield and back. The drive each way was about 100km. The drive was just as breathtaking as they say and is why it is known as one of the most beautiful drives in the world.
We started along 93A heading south from Jasper. We stopped at Meeting of the waters, and then drove a little further to a hidden treasure. It was a wonderful little lake where the water was completely still so the two mountains in the distance reflected perfectly. It was magical. Not another car on the road and we stayed for 10-15 minutes snapping photos and enjoying the quiet and stillness.
Other stops we made along the way were Athabasca Falls, Goats and Glaciers, Sunwapta Falls, Stutfield Glacier, Tangle Falls and then eventually made it to the Columbia Icefields and the Athabasca Glacier. We did a hike out to the glacier but didn’t quite go all the way to the bottom. There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground and many parts of the trail were cut off. It was fun scrambling over the rocks though. At one point, I was walking over the snow and my one foot sank and my one leg was thigh high in the snow. Instead of screaming, my reaction was to laugh and say to Joerg … “Quick, take a picture!”
We left around 2:30pm and were home by 3:30pm. It is time to shower and relax and get ready for the drive to Edmonton tomorrow.
