A Day to Remember

The blog entry for Sunday is a little late, one day to be exact,
for reasons that may be obvious by the end of this entry.

On the road a little earlier today, as there is lots to do. 

The Jasper Skytram, Maligne Lake and Maligne Canyon are all on the agenda.

The Skytram will take us to an elevation of 7550 feet up "The Whistlers Mountain", not to be confused with Whistler Mountain in BC. The location provides spectacular views of the surrounding mountain ranges. For those adventurous enough, you can climb/walk another kilometre or so to an elevation of 8200 feet. NOT!

The launch site.

Liftoff!

The view downhill as we approach the landing.

Standing on the edge.

A beautiful view.

The Edge's near the edge.

The views up here are spectacular. Too many photos to include here.

Next stop today is Maligne Lake (pronounced maleen by the locals), for a boat ride to "Spirit Island". This boat tour boasts access to the most photographed lake and mountains in the Canadian Rockies.

But along the way, there are more sights to see..

The Man on the Mountain seen from the road to Maligne Lake. 

 Today's lighting doesn't provide that perfect blue/green waterscape amidst the mountains, but the views are still pretty spectacular.

The view from Spirit Island, our boat cruise destination. I may actually enlarge and print this one to hang in the rec room.

Evidence of the summer forest fires along the road into Maligne.

An interesting contrast in colours as the landscape recovers from the July fires. The browns of the heat baked trees, the black of the fully burnt trees and cut logs and the fresh greens as nature takes hold and begins the process of renewal.  

 Next stop is Maligne Canyon. It's certainly not the Grand Canyon, but at around 170 feet deep and in some places only 7 feet across, it's incredibly beautiful none the less.
My photography skills don't do justice to the depth and beauty of the area.

One of several waterfalls running through the canyon.

One of several eddies carving the rocks over who knows how many hundreds of centuries.

The drive back to our lodging provided more spectacular views and wildlife photo ops.

A "Gang" of elk

An 8 point male. Likely the alpha of the gang.

A lone "7 pointer", seen further down the road

 On our return trip to the Overlander Mountain Lodge, I'm taking photos like those above and below along the way. Really not paying much attention to Cam's comments on how the dash on the Hyundai Veracruz is beginning to resemble an old time Christmas display in the department store window.

The vistas just keep on coming as the sun begins to set. 

We've made it to within about 500 metres of the lodge entrance when I finally pay attention to Cam's curses about how his foot has the gas pedal matted and we continue to decelerate to below 40 klm.

I wondered why he was driving so slow?

It seems that the engine has been firing solely off battery power for who knows how long and the battery has finally given up the fight.
Oh, oh.
A great day comes to a not so great conclusion.

Waiting for the tow truck

The girls hiked it back to the lodge while Cam and I awaited the tow truck. Did I mention it's Sunday of the Labour Day weekend. This is going to put a kink into our plans.

The good news is, we are all Ok and by the time Cam and I arrived back at the lodge around 9pm.,  the girls had ordered a wonderful array of appetizer trays and adult beverages, topped off with a delicious rendition of "creme brulee".

This really will be a day to remember.