Monday's Update

The Weetabix count was reduced by 2 then it was off to the Maligne Canyon. It is crossed by 6 bridges and you can walk then entire route. Its a 6.1 km hike from the sixth bridge but the most spectacular parts of the Canyon where it narrows are between bridges 1 and 4 and these can be reached by a short walk from the top car park which is what we did. Its a very impressive deep gorge and well worth the visit. Photos and video were taken from various view points. An early lunch was had in the cafe near the car park but not before the souvenir shop was investiged.

We then drove a .further 40 km up the valley to Maligne lake. The journey took around 40 minutes as speed was restrict to 70km/h for the majority of the route. Louise opted for a boat trip to Spirit Island. Its was made famous in an advert in the 70's for Kodak  Colorama  film and now one of the most famous and photographed views in the Canadian Rockies. Spirit Island turned out to be a peninsula and you could only walk on the dock and mainland and not the peninsula. The lake level rose earlier in the year and apparently it was an island for 4 days.
The views were spoilt a little by the hazy sky.
Whilst Louise was on her trip Lyn and I hired a canoe for a couple of hours. Having signed the disclaimer absolving the hire company of any responsibility we were given a quick safety briefing before we were out on the lake. The water temperature of the lake was 4 degrees and if you fell in you would suffer from hypothermia in 5-10 minutes. We paddled up the lake following the shoreline stopping occasionally to watch the birds on the shoreline and on the water. The bow of the canoe had to pointed into the wake of the tourist board as they passed. They slow down when they spot a canoe . Fortunately it was very stable and we returned to the boat house without any major incident.
We had an early dinner in the Fiddle River restaurant in Jasper. The food was good and the waitress very friendly She ensured we were all sufficiently hydrated, with her frequent water refills, for our trip to Miette Hot springs. The leaflet described it as a 45 minute drive from Jasper but it was nearly an hour if you drove to the speed limit. It was approaching  dusk and that's the time most of the animals come across the road to feed. We saw Caribou and deer but the major danger was avoiding the tourists that stopped alongside the roadside and then wandered into and across the road to take photos. When we reached to hot spring springs a folk of mountain goats were licking the salt from the car tyres of the cars parked in the car park.The hot springs were excellent value at just over $6 entrance. The water comes out of the ground at around 55 degrees centigrade but is cooled to a more reasonable 40 degree centigrade for the hottest pool. The 4 pools range in temperature from 10 to 40 degrees and all were sampled before we left. We arrived back to the lodge just before 11:00pm.

.