Angel Glacier
This morning the skies finally cleared so we were excited to go exploring and maybe take some nice photos this time. Our first target is one of Jasper's true highlights, Angel Glacier. It is hammered by tourists in summer so we made sure we were there bright and early to beat the crowds. There was only a handful of cars in the car park when we got there so we had the place pretty much to ourselves.
A note of interest. Angel Glacier as recently as 20 years ago ran all the way to the bottom of the cliff in the photos above, and into the rock pile at the bottom. I'm not sure what's causing global warming (I have some pretty strong views on it) but there's no denying that it is real. All the glaciers in Canada and Alaska are receding at an alarming rate and this one is a prime example.
The setting is quite surreal. There's next to no vegetation due to the elevation & the recent presence of a rapidly receding glacier. To add to that there's the impressive Angel Glacier (above), Mount Edith Cavell & Cavell Glacier (above) and a small berg filled lake.
Angel Glacier is one of those magical places in Western Canada that you never stop raving about. As is the case with many of the truly spectacular places around here, no photo can possibly give you a full appreciation of the the place.
We have found this summer that you can't go too far in the mountains where there's scree slopes (rock slides) without seeing one of these guys. I near tripped over them on 3 different occasions during the weekend.
Decending along the road from Angel Glacier, there is a lookout which has some nice views over the Tonquin Valley (above). There is a lengthy overnight hiking trail that follows the valley.
Portal Lake
After our successful Angel Glacier visit, we stopped back in Jasper for a quick bite & then took the main highway west into B.C. as we did last time when the weather was rubbish. It was much improved this time allowing us to see all kinds of beautiful scenery. Portal Lake (above) sits almost mocking Alberta just on the B.C. side of the border. It's only little, but it's quite pretty. It even has water lilies (foreground).
Moose Marsh
Moose Marsh is a beautiful area about half way to Mt Robson. It's prime moose country, but because it's called "Moose" Marsh, there's not even a sign of moose. It could be because of the pipeline construction project along the road at the moment, but I'm sticking to my story.
Moose Lake
Moose Lake is adjacent to Moose Marsh & also has no moose.
Mount Robson
Ah HA! Mount Robson on a clear day! It was a vast improvement in scenery to the previous dreary wet trip to the area last time.
It's quite the impressive mountain and so it should be considering it is the tallest point in the Canadian Rockies (3,954 m).
This photo, or a slight variation to it, is on every other fridge magnet & postcard in the Jasper area. We wanted one of our own.
Rearguard Falls
The short trail down to Rearguard Falls was closed for maintenance last time we were there. Not this time & the weather was clear as well. The thing that caught my eye was the shear volume of water running over the falls. The power of the water was quite mesmerizing.
Talbot Lake
The cloud came back as the afternoon progressed, and that's pretty much par for the course in the mountains. We drove east from Jasper late in the afternoon but were probably pushing our luck. We went as far as Talbot Lake (above) before we turned around and called it a day.
