Goodday Hive!
How are ya'll today! Ready for another hike? How about a drive instead? I have to admit, I'm not sure I'm ready to even talk about it. Many of my trips and the places visited leave me speechless and too many words all at the same time, it's hard to untangle my thoughts. As I sit here trying to come up with another Rockies post, I prepared like 60 pictures for this, I know it's not feasible to post that many at once yet one day in Jasper and the Maligne are is so jam packed with an abundance of worthy sites and wildlife. No wonder I spend so much time here.
As per usual, press play if you want to listen to the same tunes I wrote this post with to get in the same mood. Classy tunes for a classy landscape!
I always want to visit other areas of the Rockies, but this place is over the top. No wonder it's such a highly touristic area. One day here can easily yield over hundred share worthy pictures it becomes hard to chose what to even share in the first place. Maligne lake road, is only a small portion of Jasper and about 120 km long from Hinton to reach Maligne Lake yet 2 posts about it isn't even enough to share all of it's beauty. the Medicine Lake post was only 1 hour's worth of photography, just imagine an entire day.
The drive there is more amazing than both of the lakes combined as great as they are as stand alone natural wonders. I swear we drive up and down this road over and over again out of boredom when in the area or just because we feel like it, it's great to spend time when it's raining too and outdoor activities are a little wet or too cold. I have been here at all times of the year and I can't even pick a favorite yet, they are all favorites and have experienced too much to even begin to explain it's greatness.
The road along a mostly drained Medicine Lake leaving behind only mudflats. I was looking for these pictures to make that other short hike post, I guess I was looking at the wrong set of photos, these are taken earlier in the day than the Medicine hike, perhaps even on a different day too since it is required to return multiple days to capture the various features of the area.
There is a way down to walk into the mud flats, I did see some people walking around down there. I haven't paid much attention on where the trail might be but given the steep drop off all along the way, I would put my money on the hidden Medicine Lake trail I posted about last week might just be it. Something for me to to homework on, I want to go down there and for some reason, I'm no stranger to loosing my shoe in mud on a hike.
All the photos of the mudflats were taken from a moving vehicle on the passenger side, it's obviously a pretty unsafe location to stop given the narrow road and blocking traffic would be an issue. In the photo below, we are looking towards the usual viewpoint for Medicine Lake, so a reverse view. This is just a small section of the now drained lake, just to give you an idea how large it actually is. Can you imagine how much glacial melts it must take to overwhelm the underground river system and the lake to rise over 20 meters (60 feet)!
This is the section I talked about that was creepy to drive on when the lake is full and understand how deep this is with no guardrail to prevent anyone from going for a plunge along with erosion issues, once upon a time, a ferry was required to get across. the other side of this lake is the picture above that is mostly focused on the sky with a steep bank on the side and an is avalanche area. All along the way we see trees that fell down and many large rocks lining the side.
A less gloomy view of Medicine Lake taken the next day from the rainy hike, these photos where hundreds of photos past, no wonder I missed them entirely but too good to keep ya'll from the view. Every time we pass by this lake we have to stop and admire it, it always looks so different every time for some reason, I can never get sick of this place.
During winter, it's obviously more dangerous with loose snow. It could easily push a vehicle down into the lake/cliff if caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Another reason as to why stopping in random places even for wildlife can be pretty unsafe and better off to just have a visual memory rather than a cool photo. This land is truly unforgiving to the distracted vacationer.
In case you missed said hike I keep speaking about, I'll provide the link below, it's already paid out but I like to add relevant links that go together since these journeys are often way too much for one post image wise. It is also an explanation on it's intriguing disappearing nature that explain how it turns into mudflats every fall.
@ladyrainbow/medicine-lake-mystery-of-the-vanishing-lake
So many suggest that I should move abroad where it's cheaper to live and make my blogging and photography my source income and travel here for work but I don't think I can ever stray too far from this place...EVER. The long flat mountain in the background, this is the avalanche area I was speaking of above. The pano of the mud flats was looking towards this way.
We have been up here in winter right after an avalanche was cleaned up, pretty sure we followed the plow for the rest of the way up the mountain. If you really know the hazards, this mountain is pretty sketchy to drive on, of course we try to ignore the facts on the way up...LOOK THE OTHER WAY FROM THE SPOOKY STUFF. Once you know, YOU KNOW, it's already too late
A storm was rolling in the background adding some strange but interesting visual effects with the yellow leaves. It does make photography a little more difficult with the background getting so dark and the front in broad daylight, the camera really hates that sort of shenanigans.
When we go to Jasper, we generally go for a week at a time to maximize our experience, living only 3 hours away it's easy to just come here and never make it passed this place. I always want to go do the Canyon walk but I generally never have time with a jammed packed agenda. I always fit more than what I have time to do and the to-do list ends up getting cut in half. Much of it is my own lollygagging on the way to every location but on the other hand, you never know what and where you will encounter a show stopper. By now I'm sure you understand why I seldom make it to all the hikes I would like to and sacrificing events becomes a must. The only way I make it up here in anticipated time is if I have a boat ride to Spirit Island booked.
The long mountain range is the view just a few minutes before getting to the Medicine Lake roadside turn-out. Keep an eye out as it can be easy to miss and drive right passed it especially when the lake disappears and turns into mudflats instead. The mountains featured in the background of the lake where a forest fire occurred in 2015 is this range.
Wildlife is all over and almost seems to show up on command when I think of them...wouldn't it be cool if? ...then BAM...There it is X 10! OMG! Many of you wonder how I get so many pictures of wildlife, they show up faster than I can enjoy them. During the busy times it's hard to stop and enjoy it because cars pile up fast on the narrow mountain roads and it clogs traffic to a standstill with tourists that have no etiquette, more often than not, we don't want to aggravate the already dangerous situation along with overwhelming the animals, when they are stressed is when they tend to strike back and some of these can be pretty dangerous.
This moose would be considered a prized bull by hunters and is quite large. A moose in his prime has whiter antlers than the older ones. The large pallets have points that are closer together but smaller with a greater quantity. As they age, the antlers turn a brownish color and grow less points. They shed their antlers every spring and regrow new ones. It is possible for a moose to lose them in a brutal fight.
They are mostly only seen with females during rut season aka mating season and become extremely territorial and more dangerous than any other time of the year. They prefer snacking on leaves and mossy type material. It is common to find them in swampy areas or lakes with a rich layer of algae or other aquatic plants for their rich salt content and can eat up to 60lbs of food per day.
A proper way to view the wilderbeasts is to park on the OPPOSITE side of the road from them, not both sides, not in the middle or sideways all willy-nilly but that's what tends to happen, better believe it the park rangers will come out of nowhere and start giving people crap and clear the scene. Unfortunate it often has to go that far. They very much dislike it too, they don't want to get mad at anyone but it's the animals home and their space should be respected. At this time of year, it is considered rut season and males are highly aggressive and more likely to charge during this time.
Here is an example of where it is safe to exit the vehicle to view wildlife. The moose is relatively far away with a drop of 30 feet or more. The likelihood of a moose climbing such a bank is somewhat slim and a lot of work, reducing the chances of him charging and he himself having a visual barrier for his own safety, go down that bank tho, you are toast and he will get you.
The name moose is derived from it's Indigenous name, in Algonquin meaning "eater of twigs", in the winter when food is scarce, they legit eat hard to digest twigs and tree bark along with pine tree needles as it is the only food source available. A bull moose can weight up to 1500 pounds. Their large carcasses yields a lot of harvestable meat and has been a staple in diets across the ages in our northern climate from east to west. Hunting in a national park is prohibited so they tend to be larger.
Getting out of the vehicle is always a no-no if the wildlife is within charging distance because many of them will not hesitate to protect themselves and they can do serious damage to any human, even a vehicle along with stressing the animal out to that point is improper in the first place. If possible, coming out of the sunroof instead is highly encouraged and much safer. No ranger will yell or clear anyone viewing from a sunroof. I often find myself warning visitors when their behavior is out of line and putting themselves in a dangerous position.
If you see this face, you are way too close and in immediate danger. During rut season elks "bugle" as a mating call but also when he is angry. This one was yelling at a pack of tourist that was about 10 feet away encroaching on his turf and way too close. Half a dozen people were out of their vehicle directly in harm's way and at charging distance. In this instance, the park rangers had to interfere and shoo everyone away. (except us because we were in a safe location inside a vehicle and far enough away.) Other tourists were harassing him earlier in the day and he indeed charged at vehicles why the rangers were keeping a close eye on the situation. you never know what an animal may have encountered earlier and that can influence further aggressive behavior under stress.
Many of us photographers have great close-ups because of our gear, not because we approach them, we also don't bait them with food, never feed wildlife in a National Park, it's actually illegal. Getting close to take a selfie with the animals or a spectacular close up with a cell phone camera is always a really bad idea and super dangerous, just get the proper gear if you want those national geographic type photos. Many of these warnings should just be common sense/practice yet it's not what we observe. Please be safe and respect the wildlife so we can collectively maintain the parks enjoyable for everyone, it's every visitor's responsibility. Sometimes we just have to miss out on that cool shot and such is life, there will be other safer opportunities.
Elks can become as big as 1000 lbs, cousin to the deer but much larger and more aggressive. Although they mostly eat grass, twigs and pine needles along with other vegetation, they are also known to be some of the rare cervidae, much like his deer cousin that are actually omnivore contrary to popular beliefs that they are herbivores. The do enjoy eating bird eggs that nest on the ground. A large male elk can eat up to 30 lbs of food per day.
Similarly to it's moose counterpart, the males and females hang out in separately for most of the year except during rut season where a bull will fight for a harem and can lose up to 20% of his body weight during fierce territorial battles where the dominant elk remains and the loosing party having to vacate and find a new territory. Their age is determined by their points (2 per year or 1 every 6 months) and a prized elk to hunter's standards are a minimum of 12 points or 6 years of age or more.
As the years go by, the behaviors of tourist keeps getting bolder and bolder and can result in an animal getting put down for aggressive behavior and that's always heartbreaking. Most tourist go home after their trip and never hear about these repercussions but us locals do. National parks have to disclose to the public every time they have to put down an animal for any reason since their first obligation is CONSERVATION not tourism. Tourism is a courtesy along with a way to fund the research and development for accessibility and funding the fire prevention required to keep such a large prized forest safe that is necessary. A Banff wolf pact is almost decimated completely because of human behavior, leaving garbage and attracting wolves to campgrounds. A human fed wolf is a dead one, same can be said for bears. Keep that in mind while visiting and don't feed the wildlife in a National Park along with picking up your trash, such behavior can earn you a hefty fine anyhow.
Every year, we experienced out of control wildfires in each of the parks and putting them out is impossible with such a dense forest that is over 200 years old. We had another large one just last year at Talbot Lake. Naturally, many of the trees die before and become dry tinder and are a major fire hazard. The Maligne region is especially susceptible and has had many devastating fires over the years. Clearing the popular areas to keep the roads safe for evacuation of travelers is quite a daunting task so is keeping the roads clear and passable, if everyone is piled up blocking the road with vehicles to view wildlife, it's essentially blocking important evacuation routes in the event of an emergency that may be needed for thousands of visitors at once along with a risk for pile-ups and accident since it's a narrow winding road filled with blind turns with a big rock wall on one side and a deep cliff or a lake on the other.
A clear example on how dangerous blocking a narrow mountain access point can be with thousands trying to escape on such a remote area all at once, fire can spread easily across the road. In normal times, a car coming around the blind bend not seeing a pile of stopped cars can easily cause a pile up injuring several at once at which point it would take at least 40 minutes or more for emergency personnel to even get here to tend to the injured due to the remote location.
To aggravate the issue, an invasive Pine Beatle has devastated the region over the last decade with no signs of slowing down that kills and dries out trees faster. Much of the forest is half dead in many areas of the park and removing such dangerous fire hazard is actually impossible. All of the orange pine trees seen in this post is said infected trees, they are not supposed to turn orange like other foliage. the infection is starting to spread to Lake Louise too. I have seen infection management being done since it hasn't taken over the forest yet like Jasper, it's a race against time.
Trees infected with pine beetles are starved from water and nutrition as the bugs carve their way into the core of the tree to deposit their larvae and eventually kills the tree turning the needles orange and the trunk black in the last stage after the needles fall off.
It's easy to forget this is the wilderness and a harsh terrain despite it's highly visited status. Not much is safe and we tend to forget that while we are having fun and on vacation. Many tourist die or get severely injured or even lose their pets to wildlife encounters each year doing things in an irresponsible manner, nothing ruins a vacation like a serious incident and somebody getting hurt. Now that I have explained certain etiquette and safety precautions to keep in mind along with explaining some of the features you may find in the photos, lets get to the good stuff.
The first feature of the Maligne Lake Road is large fields lining the dense forest, often times we can find one or multiple Elks (posted above) grazing or Grizzly eating buffalo berries. It's common to find the Elk near the roadways since human activity keep their predators away. During the evening, flies and mosquitoes become unbearable so bring bug spray to better enjoy time spent in these locations. The animals also dislike them so they tend to exit the forest in attempts to get away. To maximize your chances of seeing elk, after dinner hour is best, it's almost a sure bet to find some lining the road. With that being said, driving carefully is an asset because they do go in the road quite a bit too sometimes in herds. I know it should be in the beginning of the post since it's the first feature but the best chance to catch the elk is on the way down from the mountain closer to sundown, why they always end up towards the end of the journey, planning to be a at certain places at certain times is wildlife viewing strategy.
There isn't too many safe areas to stop to photograph the landscape but there is a few road side turn-offs to park temporarily that are often connected to a short trail to walk to the coveted features. Being mindful some of the banks are susceptible to erosion and collapse at any time with a fast running river just below, extra caution is required and following the trails are by far the safer option.
Knowing your own personal level of comfort is also required. Many bike, jog or walk along this road to gain access to these special views and I thought it would be a good idea to walk along the road, and many do it but on my return with my back to traffic to avoid blind corners on the road, I ended up getting scared because cars were driving too close to me and I just ended up hugging the guardrail and a tree until someone came to get me. I wasn't doing anything wrong per say but I grossly underestimated my own level of comfort with the situation that left me trapped for a little while. Telling someone else where you are going so they know where to find you in such situation is an asset since cell phone reception isn't exactly the best if there is even any at all in these remote locations.
The pictures in here were posted over 2 days driving around between various hikes in the area, as mentioned we like to just "kill time here if we have any daylight time left. Obviously one day was rainy and one day the temp was really nice getting much better pictures but even on a rainy day the views are still something else and give the mountains a more spooky look with the storms looming in the background. The dark blue image, that's a wicked storm rolling in but it does make for added elements for photography. The sky changes as we go up and down the mountain, elevation is generally stormier than below.
I was supposed to write a post about our mushroom hike at Maligne Lake plus the road but it's safe to say I'll have to split that up in an other post yet again, this road is just too magnificent and it deserves it's own stand alone post and I don't know which pictures I want to leave out. I suppose road and animal safety already took a long time to write and explain, it's already turning into a monster post, this is the run that most tourist would see anyway, not as many take on the hikes anyway. Obviously this hour long drive takes us much longer as we stop everywhere we can.
On the way down from the mountain offers a nice view of Pyramid Mountain in the Canyon area, it looks better when the skies cooperate but that's what we get keeping the fall theme.
Just the dense forest is a feature of it's own, nobody can even begin to imagine it's magnitude unless you have been here. No matter how many times, it always looks so different from one time to the next. As you can see the fields end very early on once getting passed the Canyon walk. A this point, we are passed the canyon and the 4 day skyline hike passes thru all of this but on foot, can you just imagine! Much of it is following ridges all the way to Maligne lake.
I don't think I have quite the ambition to hike that much, I remember taking a 20km hike in one day and my feet were burning afterwards and I was half passed out in a field of fireweed on the last half kilometer, I could see the truck but it seemed so far! there is a trailhead to access it via moose loop trail at Maligne lake that goes up to a view point, it is on my list and has been for sometime just to catch a glimpse of the vantage view but somehow something else always pops up last minute and flat hikes seem more appealing than elevation, especially as I get older. I really should get to it before I get to old for it. The Medicine Lake area turns into fireweeds going at the right time in the summer, it looks quite pretty if you get the chance to visit during that time.
I was going to include some Mountain Sheep in this post with all the animals but this is long as it is, I will save them for part 3 of this, the actual hike I have been trying to write about but keep getting distracted! These posts get away from me sometimes, it's the mountains I swear! They have a mind of their own that takes over mine...haha 😆
On a side note, pictures need multiple attempts to load properly and it is frustrating to create posts when images are just a grey bar, if someone from the developing team reads this, can this bug be looked into and fixed, it would make this a more fun experience for creating content and usability. The problem isn't too many images, it starts all the way from trying to load the very first image and the bug repeats with half the images. Thank you in advance.
All images are taken with a Nikon Z6 paired with 18-55mm lens for landscape and 300mm lens for wildlife.
Well I hope you enjoyed the drive and thanks for all your support. xox