Saturday and on to Lake Maligne

I missed Maligne Lake on my former trip to this area and looked forward to seeing it today.  The area is famous for its scenic beauty, even within an area of rampant scenic beauty; indeed, I've made a jigsaw puzzle adorned with a vista of Spirit Island from the southern end of the lake.

The road to the Lake is incredibly beautiful, and our day began with a quick stop on the side of the road to take a picture of Pyramid Mountain.  Luke noticed that there were several elk in the foreground of the panorama (Hey Mom - duh!).

Pyramid Mountain, Jasper National Park

Same photo, with close-up on 2 elk in foreground

The road to Maligne Lake brings you past Medicine Lake and its staggering beauty.  In fact, I used the word "staggering" so much on this trip that Luke forbade me to use it any more (as if!).  Bring out the thesaurus...

The road delivers you to the northern end of Lake Maligne, near the outlet - another great potential sampling location, BTW.

Maligne Lake, facing roughly south from the outlet, the start of the Maligne River

We followed the general flow of people to the visitor center/gift shop et cetera.  Another glacial lake that has been developed - boat docks with tour boats alongside the early 1900's boathouse, now in use as a canoe rental shop - yes, more bright red canoes.  Here, however, they are less visually intrusive, as Maligne Lake is much bigger than Lake Louise.  For the price of $115, two people can take the 90-minute round-trip cruise to the southern end of the lake.  Exorbitant?  Yes, but the scenery en route was incredible, and we didn't have time to canoe its length to Spirit Island.

Eastern flank of Lake Maligne

Facing south, from the northern end of Lake Maligne

Southern end, Lake Maligne

Spirit Island

Mount Warren, the peak just right of center with the most snow

Southern Lake Maligne

Panorama, southern Lake Maligne

 Picked up a biography in the gift shop - Mary Schaeffer Warren, the first non-native woman to explore the Canadian Rockies - great sense of the period of the late 1800 - early 1900's.