Hi Steemians!
The nights in the tent were still cold and rainy not even worth trying to start a camp fire, luckily we had a tarp shelter over the tent and entry way, we could still sit outside and make the best of it without getting wet, keeping all our blankets in pillows in the truck during the day ensured a dry bed as well. The sound of the rain hitting the tarp was kind of soothing anyhow and made it easy to go to sleep. The days weren't so bad, light rain on and off but tolerable it helped keeping the daytime a cool temperature perfect for hiking around, this day wasn't going to be any different, more rain in the forecast for the afternoon.
Shot 1/250 sec. f/8 46 mm, ISO 200
A few days before, we attempted to do the Maligne Lake boat tour to Spirit Island(the only way to get there is by water travel) but it was booked solid for the day. We didn't hesitate to book online to make sure we got there before this trip was over before we find new places to visit and forget about it. As we travel thru the Rockies, the bucket list gets longer every time and activities tend to be put off until later every year as new things become priority and this was one of them! From the town of Jasper, it is still about an hour's drive on a narrow winding road up to the lake, if you book the tour, allow yourself enough of time to get there because the boat doesn't wait.
Shot 1/250 sec. f/8 34 mm, ISO 160
As we got to the lake area, Parks Canada had one of their lovely interactive displays with several sets of horns from various local wildlife and a guide to give information on each of them. We've seen them plenty of times before we didn't pay too much attention at first until we saw a skin...hum I wonder what it could be?? None other than a grizzly bear skin... YAY... I get to pet grizzly fur! Don't worry I didn't bait you with the tittle, it is not the encounter, don't give up now...lol. We were able to convince the staff to let us wear it for a selfie, to be honest that's the only selfie with a bear I would want. Not to worry, the bear did not get hunted for it's fur, it died of natural causes and was harvested since all grizzly's in the park have a tracking device to ensure their health and location, the park uses such harvest for educational and entertainment purpose. There are so many ways to be silly and have fun like a bunch of kiddults in the park, you are only as old as you feel! Just for the record, that skin was still pretty heavy, it must have been a lot of weight for early explorers and native tribesmen to wear for warmth and to protect them from the harsh elements while traveling thru.
After destroying their displays, we put all of their stuff back in order as if we were never there for the staff and carried on to the task at hand, pick up our previously booked tickets and head to the loading dock for our boat journey. The tour is one hour and a half total and includes 14 km boat ride each way with a tour guide explaining the history and different features of the land and of course time to get off onto land and do the short trail to get the best views of the popular Spirit Island. Like any other day, the place was filled with tourist and the line up didn't take long to fill in anticipation. It is possible to canoe to Spirit Island but it is a 3 hour journey, unless you have your own, the rental fee will be as much as the tour, save yourself the hard work unless that's your thing.
Shot 1/320 sec. f/9 18 mm, ISO 100
I already know enough of the knowledge of the area having been there several times, whatever I would miss from the tour guide, I knew I could just google a lot of the info. It is possible to exit our seats after take off and hangout on the deck outside with the wind flowing in my hair, the way a boat ride should be experienced. Only 8 people at a time can exit the boat cabin at any given time, I knew my time was now while they are busy soaking up the information from the guide. To be honest, it was the time to do it, there were only 3 of us outside most of the way there, on the way back it wouldn't take long to fill up and miss my chance. That was a sure bet! Glad I went when I almost had it all to myself. It was a beautiful view as we approached spirit island and passed the mountains surrounding the lake. The air was crisp on the water but I planed ahead and dressed warm-ish.
Shot 1/320 sec. f/9 18 mm, ISO 100
Aside from the previously mentioned Colonel Fred Brewster's investment into developing Jasper's tourism industry ( In case you missed my Maligne Lake walk post explaining this, I will leave a link at the bottom of this post) what made Spirit Island as famous has it has become? The once popular Kodak photography film maker issued a campaign for the advertising of what was their new photo film technology at the time urging one their photographers, Peter Gales, to send in prized photos of beautiful remote location to be featured in the marketing efforts. The image was hung in Grand Central Station in Manhattan for close to 40 years as part of the Colorama large prints. Here is the image in question below, you may have seen it yourself not knowing where this was taken. This advertising is what put spirit island on the traveler's map and much of it's tourism is attributed to this image. Just a side note, beautiful picture but amazing how photography has improved since then, for the time and technology available, it was a masterpiece and is still highly regarded in the Maligne Lake tourism industry .
Image taken by Peter Gales for the Kodak marketing campaign.
Shot 1/320 sec. f/9 18 mm, ISO 100
Spirit Island is not a true Island, it's more of a peninsula. It is Sacred ground and not possible to actually step foot on the patch of land as a sign of respect for the past. This location is attached to the legend of a tragic love story. Once upon a time, a boy and a girl from 2 different feuding tribes once met on Spirit Island and fell in love. Each week, they would meet at this location in anticipation until one day, the girl confessed to her father, the Chief, about the forbidden love and she was banned from ever returning and followed her father's wishes. Her lover kept returning to Spirit Island each week hoping to see her one more time until he eventually died on the peninsula with a broken heart. It is told that his spirit still haunts the land looking for his lost love.
Shot 1/320 sec. f/9 18 mm, ISO 100
Taken by a lovely family visiting from NY with 
Shot 1/250 sec. f/8 18 mm, ISO 110
We had about 15 minutes on land to visit the short nature trail until it was time to board the boat back, by this time, the winds were starting to pick up and light rain was back. At least we got most of the tour rain free so far, that's all we could ask for. After the boat tour was complete and were back to the main area, we took the 45 minute trail to Moose Loop, where there has been regular moose sightings. It's a fairly easy trail for any level of fitness, relatively flat for most of the way. The trees sheltered us from the rain for the most part, our cowboy hats did the trick at keeping the rest of the water out of our faces while we hiked. We didn't see any moose but we did get to chat with other visitors on the trail just as happy as we were to be there even with the less than perfect weather. We did get to see the rare Haller's Apple moss growing all along the trail, it can only be found in 9 known locations across Canada. It wasn't totally free of wildlife, we did get to spend some time with a deer until it got surrounded and chased away.
Shot 1/30 sec. f/6.3 200 mm, ISO 1600
Shot 1/500 sec. f/6.3 200 mm, ISO 1400
Like any other day in the Rockies, this was going to be a long day with lots to see, this was only the beginning. Now we will be going into more details and following the hydrology of the area. Of course, like most lakes in Jasper National Park, it gets it's cold water from melting glaciers, but where does it go from here? First it gets carried down to Medicine Lake by the Maligne River. Maligne is french for wicked, describing the heavy violent flow of the river.
Shot 1/200 sec. f/7.1 26 mm, ISO 200
Medicine Lake is another one of Jasper's interesting geological feature more like an anomaly, this lake is akin to a giant bathtub. It's not supposed to be a lake at all, it is excess water or overflow that the natural drainage to Maligne Canyon cannot carry. In the summer it accumulates as the glaciers melt and form a shallow lake, in the fall and winter, when the glaciers begins to freeze again, it has a chance to completely drain into the canyon and other surrounding lakes thru the various ground faults or underground rivers and remains bare until the next summer when the natural drainage system gets overwhelmed again. There are trails to explore the landscape, we didn't have time to do any of them, our mission was to continue following the watershed into Maligne Canyon. That requires driving down the mountain a little more, on the way we did encounter another deer walking thru the charred remains left behind by a forest fire that devastated the region 3 years ago.
Shot 1/125 sec. f/5.6 300 mm, ISO 800
As mentioned before, Malgigne Canyon is part of the Maligne Lake water system that carved into the mountain over several centuries, the trail will take you thru 6 bridges to do the complete trail, it can be done all at once or in sections, even in reverse order. There is a parking access at the first bridge, the 5th and at last the 6th bridge. Most of the easy scenery and the view of the canyon is between bridge 1 thru 4 and between 5th to 6th bridge. We started at 1 st bridge, where the trail begins downhill at the narrowest part of the canyon and save the uphill climbing once our muscles are warmed up on the return.
Shot 1/125 sec. f/5.6 18 mm, ISO 400
This is a fairly busy trail and I would say this is a family friendly hike but because of some of the steep climbs up and down , I would consider this for a medium level of fitness. Bridge one thru 4 is only a few kilometers of hiking return trip, making it a good time filler as it only takes an hour, 2 at the max (that is really taking your time). The beginning is mostly the canyon with various waterfalls and cascades snaking thru the valley. The trail takes you on the top edge following the flow of the Maligne River to it's various features. In the winter, it completely freezes over making it possible to walk into the canyon.
Shot 1/125 sec. f/5.6 18 mm, ISO 320
Shot 1/125 sec. f/5.6 18 mm, ISO 200
Shot 1/100 sec. f/5 18 mm, ISO 400
As we got deeper into the canyon, it starts to get wider and becomes possible to walk closer to the river. The rain finally stopped for another little while and it didn't take long for everything to get warm and muggy again, good thing we dressed in layers, it was time to take a few off. As we walked, we were able to find a few cascades, the exits of the underground rivers that flow into the canyon at various spots. If you plan on doing this in the evening like we did, bring bug repellent, mosquitoes are pretty vicious if you are bait like
Shot 1/100 sec. f/5.6 18 mm, ISO 400
Shot 1/100 sec. f/5.6 40 mm, ISO 400
Most of the pictures above are from 1st to 4th bridge, we continued to fifth bridge, a bit of longer walk adding an additional couple kilometers to the trail. Most of it is still following the the flow of the river down the mountain. This area becomes quiet as not too many makes it this far being the more boring part of the walk but just as breathtaking as far as the view. We didn't make it to 6th bridge, since we had to retrace our steps to get out and it was getting closer and closer to sundown and we wouldn't have time get out before darkness, with two vehicles, one could easily park at each end and avoid the return trip. We do plan on returning in the future and do the walk from 5-6 as it also contains interesting features along the way. I know I say it every post but it is hard to see everything in one day. The pictures below are from 4-5 bridge.
Shot 1/160 sec. f/6.3 18 mm, ISO 200
Shot 1/250 sec. f/8 18 mm, ISO 200
Shot 1/125 sec. f/5.6 135 mm, ISO 1000
Now that we were out of the trail, we decided to go back up to Medicine Lake to see if we could catch a sunset since it wasn't that far after all but it was too cloudy, it wasn't going to happen. I was able to quickly capture the clouds parting and allowing the sun rays to peek thru and shower the mountain with it's golden rays. It was pretty slim on sunsets this trip but I was happy at all the wildlife we saw and today was somewhat descent lighting for landscape photography compared to other days. Little did we know, the evening wasn't over yet, the mountain gods had another really special surprise in store for us that we would have completely missed if we didn't take this last trip up to Medicine Lake.
This is probably the part you have all been patiently waiting for!! On our way back down Maligne Lake road, there it was!! the coveted Grizzly bear!! Finally, after all my travels to the Rockies and bear country, I finally got to see one...WOW. Of course the area got crowded pretty quickly but we found a spot across the street to park and view the majestic creature. I must have connected with the Grizzly Spirit when I wore it's skin!!
Most assume grizzly's are hunters but they are not, they are aggressive and will defend their territory. They will not shy away from an easy meal if they find a carcass and will guard it with their life but they actually prefer berries, their favorite being buffalo berries. If you see these bushes, it's a good indicator for bear activity. They put the branch in their mouth and clear the whole thing. If you encounter freshly eaten branches, probably a good idea to vacate before you surprise him mid meal. As mentioned they prefer the easiest route as hunting requires a lot of work and energy the bear just doesn't want to spend. To live from berries, the average Grizzly must eat 250 000 berries per day. That is right, 1/4 million berries every day!!! That is some fierce munching going on!
As I previously mentioned, all the bears are equipped with a tracking collar, one of the Maligne bears stopped roaming the hills and park officials became worried that he may have been sick or had passed, they went to check on it and realized it had found a Moose carcass to eat and it took him one month to eat the whole thing right before hibernation. When he came out of hibernation the following spring, he was twice the weight he was in the fall to this day, no Grizzly has outweighed the lucky food lottery winner yet! The one we saw wasn't that big, he appeared to be pretty young. For the record, Maligne Lake Road is a hot spot for wildlife, not once have I been on this road without seeing something even in winter and the animal sighting tour company takes their guests down this road regularly. Here is one more picture before I leave you. I hope you enjoyed the post and images!
All images taken with Nikon D7000 with Sigma 18-200mm lens for landscape and Nikkor 300mm lens for wildlife unless other wise stated.
https://steemit.com/travel/@ladybug146/jasper-national-park-wildlife-bonanza-day-1-and-2-30-photos
Cheers! X🐞X