Day 12 -- Jasper National Park

Summary:

Views like this all day

• more than 11 miles hiked
• 118 flights of stairs (or equivalent) climbed
• Random run-ins: (2)
• Wildlife seen: (3)
• bear (momma and cub)
• stone sheep
• caribou

 Jasper National Park is amazing ... gorgeous beyond words.  I decided to tackle two trails today, the Valley of Five Lakes and the Maligne Canyon.  In between, I sampled the local cuisine and craft beers.  At the end of the day, I soaked in Miette Hot Springs.  Sadly, I was negligent in my sunscreen application today ... so half of my face is rosy, rosy red, as are my ears ... ugh!

Seriously amazing

The Valley of Five Lakes was quite nice ... pretty green-blue lakes with mountains in the background.  The hike wasn't too bad.  A bit steeper than I anticipated in a few spots but quite worth it, regardless.  Except for "second lake" ... second lake was basically empty ... very disappointing, given all of that walking.

Fifth Lake, stylized by google

Random boats ... because, you know

Jasper is a very cute, very touristy town.  I enjoyed some pizza and local craft beer; all fueled up, I was ready to tackle the canyon.

Somewhere along the canyon

Maligne Canyon was ... a bit boring?  I mean how many times can you look down into a canyon without being too bored?  What was tough about this one is that you were walking down the mountainside along the canyon ... knowing that you'd have to walk back up it ... when will I ever learn?!?!?!?

I rewarded myself with a long soak in the local hot springs.  It was a long, long soak.  Miette actually cools down the local spring and they have 4 separate pools, 2 of which are freaking COLD!  It was good to go from the hot pool to the cold one (for all of 15 seconds) then back into the warmest pool.  

All in all, it was a fairly amazing day.  I make my way to Banff tomorrow ... more gorgeous views that no camera can do justice.

along the walk back up the canyon

Ok, let's talk about how small of a world it is ... staying at the same little inn as me, I ran into a kid that grew up, literally 20 miles from where I did.  He and his girlfriend are up in Jasper and Banff on a get away.  How random is that?!  I mean, he's like 10 years younger than I am so we don't know any of the same people ... but his hawkeyes hat gave him away as an Iowegian and, in a way that would do my Grandma Mary proud, I started chatting them up.

And then, at the hot springs, randomly, a woman from Moncton (New Brunswick, only 3 hours from Halifax) started chatting with me, which led to a gentleman from Truro (an hour from Halifax) to chime in as well.  Small, small world indeed.