We woke up this morning and headed into the main street of Jasper for breakfast. It's the craziest thing. The B&B's (Bed & Breakfast) in the Canadian National Parks by law are not allowed to serve breakfast. Those Crazy Canadians eh?....
After a hearty feed we headed out exploring the area. The easiest and closest attraction are the twin lakes tucked in behind the Jasper Townsite. The first one along the road is Patricia Lake (above). Pyramid Mountain in the background dominates the skyline to the West of Jasper town site. It's a little out of place in the Rockies because it has a distinct red tinge. I guess the red rock type is why they named the town Jasper.
Patricia's neighbour, Pyramid Lake has a very similar view (above) but the tourist buses all stop there. Fortunately we were early enough to beat them to it.
The lakes around Jasper seem to be devoid of the turquoise colloids of the lakes to the south in Banff National Park.
Looking across Pyramid Lake (above) the mountains to the south of Jasper dominate the horizon.
We explored part the way along Maligne Lake road during the previous Jasper visit. Today we took more time to be a little more thorough by going to the end at Maligne Lake. Part the way along we were lucky enough to see a black bear scrambling up the hill away from the road.
Maligne Lake is probably the most visited lake in Jasper National park, with an endless stream of tour buses pulling up to the massive car park and disgorging their tourists in scary numbers. To be honest, the lake was a huge let down. Maybe it was because the weather had begun to close in, or maybe it's an afternoon lake (this photo was taken mid morning looking east toward the sun. I still don't think it's got that much going for it other than you can pay $47 CAD to crowd onto a boat and take the tourist shot of Spirit Island (which doesn't actually have any Indian spiritual significance at all). Not today thanks.
Medicine Lake (above) is way better than Maligne Lake (which feeds Medicine lake). We'd been to the north western end of Medicine Lake last year and this time we got to have a look at the south east end of the lake on the way back from Maligne Lake. The water level was much lower than last time, but it didn't make it any less interesting. Photographically, Medicine Lake is a morning or afternoon lake depending on what end you go to. It's one of my favourites. Check out the near vertical sandstone ranges to the right of picture.
Overlander Falls
After lunch we headed across the border into B.C. then north to Robsen. En-route we traveled through some gorgeous scenery. They don't call it "Beautiful B.C.' for nothing. Unfortunately the weather had closed in so it didn't make for particularly nice photography, but we'll be going back next time so stay tuned. We did stop and do a short walk down to Overlander Falls (above) which is in the shadow of Mt Robsen (below), the tallest peak in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
There were some crazy kayakers trying to kill themselves in the rapids and whitewater which as pretty funny to watch.
I promise to take some nicer photos of this beautiful part of Canada in August (weather permitting).
