Day trip to Jasper area, Alberta, Canada

27th June 2012 - Day trip to Jasper from Hinton

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Jasper is about an hours drive from Hinton. We left at around 10.30am  to rather grey skies and howling winds. It was 9deg C when we got up and 3deg C the morning before. There is National Parks checks before entering Jasper-you need a pass to enjoy any of the National Parks.

Entry to the town of Jasper. It is 13deg C but with the winds, it felt colder.

Downtown Jasper with the Whistlers Inn in the photo.

This 12metre totem pole is a replica of the original Raven Totem Pole carved by Simeon Sdiihldaa.

The original pole had deteriorated over the years and a new one was commissioned. It was completed in 2009 and was moved to the Jasper Railway Station and now carries the new name of 2 Brothers Pole.

A write up on the Totem Pole that stood in front of the railway station.

The original totem was carved in 1870 by Simeon Sdiihldaa, Chief of the Raven Clan.

Lunchtime and we are checking out the restaurants. We spotted Prime ribs being advertised at the Karouzos Steak House.  Oddly enough, it offers greek food. We had to come back as the prime rib wasn't quite ready. Not cheap but it is fine dining-I had a lovely Chilean Sav. Blanc with my rainbow trout and Tom had Chilean Merlot with his  "doorstop" size prime rib.

Another restaurant - one would have thought that being in the Rockies, Jasper's busiest time would be the ski season but apparently its July/August that's their peak season. We saw quite a few ads in restaurant windows for waiting staff.

This cafe has cleverly used Kale amongst other flowers.

Tom checking out the menu at this restaurant - we almost ate there!

Went in, sat down, looked at the menu and left without the waiter even knowing!

The restaurant we "almost ate at" had a beautiful display of flowers at the entrance.

These were roses (that really smelled) amongst some lilies.

We spotted some unusual mulch in use at the Jasper Visitors Information Centre - they are mini pine cones.

The waiter at the Karouzos Steak House was most helpful in pointing us to where we could see wildlife. This is the bridge that takes you into Maligne Lake (pronounced Merleen).

Within metres, we spotted some Mule deer grazing along the roadside.

White water rafting heaven....the Maligne River rushes headlong at tremendous speed.

The calm before the storm(so to speak)-but the river is still running very fast.

Beautiful Medicine Lake-the water is a lovely delicate lime green.

It is a 38km drive into this park area.

We passed some Mountain Sheep totally engrossed in eating-what we don't know.

It was obviously very tasty as they paid no attention at all to people stopping to look. 

Some of the kids were just interested in gamboling and playing while the adults had their feed.

Maligne Lake - elevation: 5568ft above sea level. Temperature: 9deg. Celsius.

Some sections of the road are quite winding, but road conditions were good.

Spotted this caribou amongst the trees just at the edge of the road. So far no bears but I think we were too early in the day for bear spotting. 

They were not likely to be standing at the roadside at 2pm waving at us as we drove past!

Some of the roads into the trails were closed due to flooding.

At some parts of the lake shore, the water was almost lapping at the road.

On the way back to Hinton, we saw this fine specimen of an Elk on the roadside. Check out its antlers! Tom noted that we had not seen any roadkills so far which tends to indicate that the wildlife population is dwindling??

These Mountain Sheep were also at this stretch of the road a couple of days ago-a much larger group than the one we saw on the 25th.  They appear to be moulting - making them look like they were wearing threadbare pieces of carpets!