Maligne Canyon/river and lake

Thursday

Some of you will think me really behind the times, but this morning is the first time I’ve used a coffee maker which uses “pods”.  And I figured it out—it isn’t rocket science.

One thing you discover when using Yahoo news in a different country is that the Canadians couldn’t possibly care less how the Texas Rangers baseball team fared the night before.  I found out, but the info wasn’t readily available.

We’re in Jasper which is 3700 ft above sea level and  the lake we visit today is 5000 ft.  I hear as the altitude rises, hands and feet swell.  I bought a new ring (adjustable) today, but won’t wear it when we go higher.

The river and lake were named Maligne when a French priest was crossing the water of the river, lost his footing, lost all his possessions and almost lost his life.  He said the river was maligne—French for "cursed".

  

The strange thing about this river and lake is that in the fall, the water seems to dry up, but as the water level gets lower, the river goes underground.  In places one part of it, called Miracle (Medicine) Lake, dries up and becomes just a mud hole—it is also  going underground at that point.  No one is completely sure where all the water goes.

Sorry the video is silent- it was really loud in person.

On our drive out and back today we did see some wildlife.  At the side of the road were some Big Horn Sheep babies with their

mom.  They were not skittish about the bus stopping for folks to take pictures.  Later we saw a large family of elk at the side of the road.

At a shop in the national park, N bought some ice wine chocolate.  The package says that ice wine is made from frozen grapes.  Haven’t tried the chocolate yet.

N’s napping now that we’re back at the hotel and we’ll walk the 10 or so blocks in to Jasper later for supper and back.

When we went shopping in Jasper awhile ago, the shopkeepers were talking about a big fire at Maligne canyon—where we were today.  There is a huge plume of smoke over the mountains in front of our hotel. 

Before

Before

We got everything on our list- except for one item that I hope we can find tomorrow in Banff.  As we were eating at a “family restaurant”  I noticed an ad for an unusual dessert.  Ever wanted chocolate covered bacon in ice cream mixed with fresh fruit??  Not me—I had Caribou Caramel ice cream and N had Rocky Mountain Raspberry.  (Oh btw, do you say caramel as two syllables or three?)