Twofer

 

Rain was the name of the game for our last two touring days (Fri & Sat 7/29,30) in Alberta (Canada).  We carried on our touring in spite of recurring showers.   On Fri. friends Dave and Chris came to stay at our rv park for a couple of days, so that it was six of us who went nature walking that evening.  At the eastern edge of Hinton is a fen (spring or stream fed wetlands) with a boardwalk around and through it.  We came to see the beavers.

We wandered aimlessly  beside and across the water.

Our first sign of beaver activity.

Lodges.

Finally, the beaver family, working away on a new dam.

Other denizens of the pond.

As we found the beavers, the rain found us.  We made it back to our vehicles before the rain started, drove home through pouring rain.  As we pulled into our rv park, we saw this beautiful perfect double rainbow.  These photos don’t show the sharp, bright colors, but does show that the colors are reversed on the upper one.

Rain continued throughout the next day, as we explored another side road in Jasper National Park.

The road to Mirette  (Myret) hot springs would have been fun on the bikes as it wound its way through the mountains.

The big draw was the hot springs swimming pool and bath house.  As we arrived a shower was starting.  We decided to wait it out in the restaurant/gift shop while we had lunch.

We weren’t here to swim but to see where the old bath house and swimming pool used to be.

Hot water from the pool running down the hill.  Here it was hot, but cooled quickly the further it went.

The hot water from the spring joined the Mirette River coming from the opposite direction. This water was icy cold.

A nice boardwalk made this walk easy.

Old bath house foundation.  At the lower level were steam rooms and saunas.  The upper wooden level, now gone, held the entrance and changing rooms.  The pool itself was to the left.

View of the pool today looking toward Brock and Leola on the other side of the trees.

There are several hot springs along this walk.  This one featured a little gutter for people to feel the water temperature.

This little spring flowed under the boardwalk.

At the parking/picnic area we disturbed this Big Horn sheep rummaging among the litter.

He nonchalantly waited for us to move out of his way,

and headed for the grass on the other side.

With rain starting again, we headed ourselves toward home.

Only one more day in Jasper.

Louise and Duane

A Road Well Traveled

 

Jasper’s Maligne  (Maleen) River road beckoned us today.  Before we reached the road we had to endure an hour south through the park on 93.  A tough job but somebody had to do it.  

 

We were very lucky spotting wildlife today.  It seems that the edges of the road were particularly alluring for a lot of animals today.  These Big Horn sheep ambled down the mountain,

across the road, and

on to the other side. 

The Maligne area road was fun with dips and rises and sweeping curves.

What do you see? 

Yup! Our first black bear!  I took these pix from the bike in case the bear decided to come our way.  What amazed me was that the woman above was holding a baby that close to a dangerous animal who can run faster than she can!

As with most animals, the best shot it gave us was its backside.

Maligne Lake was designed as a tourist attraction.  The main attraction is the boat tour of the lake, which makes this area very popular with tourists..

There are two buildings.  A tour ticket office, and this one—a combo gift shop washroom, and restaurant.  We ate lunch here and enjoyed the views of the lake. 

The lake is the end of the road, so we pointed the bikes back toward home.  There is beautiful scenery everywhere.

Rain can occur anywhere, any time.  The showers that we’ve encountered have been short since we usually ride into and out of them as they move across the road. It is not uncommon for us to ride from blue sky under a rain cloud and out into sunshine in a matter of minutes.  On our way home it rained on us three times.

Tectonic subduction formed a lot of this area.  That is where one plate moves under another lifting that side and forming mountains by tilting.  These layers were once the sediment layers of the ocean that covered this area millions of years ago.  This is their actual tilt.  The camera is straight.

What happens to Medicine Lake is also a result of this subduction.

Back on 93, the wildlife wasn’t done showing off.

Elk

and company.

Big Horn sheep on the mountain right off  the road,

and between the road and the Athabascan River.

A lone male elk.

I think all the Big Horn herds came out today.

We have passed this pull out many times.  This time our curiosity got the better of us.  All that is here is two info signs a pit toilet and a walking trail. 

Jasper National Park was named for Jasper Hawes.

 

One last look at sheep to round our our wonderful wildlife day.

What shall we do next?  Stop back and see.

Louise and Duane

Jasper? Yes!

 

Spyder  took the lead down 16 to access our route of the day—93A.  At the time we didn’t know that we would be seeing this mountain up close.

We took any side road that branched off and found that they were all wonderfully curvy, squiggly roads up and down mountains.

 

Our first trip ended at the gate leading to the Marmot Basin ski area.  Down a little side road we saw our first wildlife.  We’re guessing some kind of grouse.

Our next road led up to the Jasper SkyTram.  The road ended in a parking lot well below the top.

We selected Otters’ Cache for lunch. 

Just as we were getting into lunch we discovered that this should have been named Mosquito Heaven.

As soon as we moved it started to rain!

To start the afternoon off right we found a true mountain switch back road to ride.  There were about 6 of these,

and eight of these.

We ended up at the base of Mt. Edith Cavell, which we had seen from 93 on our way to Hinton on Monday, and again today from 93A.  This is what’s left of a true glacier.

The blue ice tells you that it is very old.

Nice cascades (one on the left too) and a waterfall.

Back down we went and along the Athabascan River valley to the confluence of these two rivers, one a clear blue snow melt river, the other a sagy-green glacier melt river full of silt.

Whirpool in front, Athabascan in back.

Brock and I were in here for less than 30 seconds.  My feet were numb.

That’s COLD!!!!!!

More fun with water.  This is the awesome Athabascan Falls.

The water tumbles down a narrow canyon a long way past this point.

The rest of 93A was all downhill.

It ended in 93, which we took north towards home along the valley floor.  Snow?  No just white rocks and green trees.

We’d given up on wildlife when we ran into these big horn sheep just posing in the road. Notice the ram in the street keeping watch over his flock.

Still brimming with excitement over the sight of wildlife, we tooled along enjoying the wonderful rock formations.

I noticed this interesting formation.  It ran from the road straight up for about 50’.  As I looked up, another flock of sheep met my eye standing nonchalantly on the thinnest of ledges.  I took a quick shot, but didn’t get lucky.  O well.

These magpies will have to do for the last wildlife of the day.

More fun next time.

Louise and Duane