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Still NO bears!!!!!

A day out to Lake Maligne.   It was a nice lake not as spectacular as Lake Louise but the plus side was although it was busy it wasn’t anything as bad as Lake Louise – we went for a walk around the side of the lake and then up into the forest and then had a quick look at the Visitors centre which was just café and shop before heading back towards Jasper to find the Maligne Canyon.  



After coffee and donuts in the car park we walked down the river side into the canyon – or rather through it and above it.  It was a great walk alongside the water with stunning rock formations washed away by the constant water flow.  There were several places where the water cascaded in to the river  - some of it came from leakage of Medicine Lake a lake we had driven past earlier, although the lake paled into insignificance dwarfed by the incredible limestone mountains alongside, with a ridge measuring about 4 k's long which Dr Fred was having fantasies about.....


In some parts of the canyon the river flowed very fast and as we walked up it got narrower and narrower and deeper and deeper with amazing drops and fantastic patterns cut into the sides where the water has swirled and rushed past.


There were several bridges one marked the depth of the canyon at that point as 51 metres it was very narrow and obviously deep by this point and the water rushed through making a tremendous noise.  We walked to the top of the canyon and then back to the car by a different higher path with fabulous views across the mountains. 

We had decided to try and spot a bear so our plan was to waste some time reading books and hanging out – drive back down towards the Lake – cook tea at a picnic site and then as dusk arrived drive slowly back to the campsite on a bear hunt.   We had been informed that this was the best time to see bears.  So that’s what we did – I was slightly uneasy frying up steak in case a bear came by but no such luck and that same luck held all the way home although we waited until well after 9.00 as dusk fell and drove slowly no sign of any bears!!! there were loads of people doing the same thing so any self respecting bear would be sat in the campsite laughing!!! Very disappointing! Still it was a good day with two very nice walks and a nice picnic tea by the river. and once again spectacular views with beautiful evening light falling on the peaks ... (it rained quite badly then. maybe bears dont like the rain!!!)


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