Weather wasn't looking great, with low clouds and dark skies but we kept going. We made our first stop to hike down to a secluded lake off the highway. Cooper was glad to be out of the car, and skipped most of the way down to the lake.
Little boy, big mountains
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| From Jasper |
Flurries starting to fly
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| From Jasper |
A make-shift golf club
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| From Jasper |
Then it was time to throw some rocks in the lake
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| From Jasper |
The weather kept getting worse, so we just made fast tracks up to Jasper as it was getting close to lunch time. We grabbed some good pizza, then walked up and down the tourist trap area with Cooper darting into every open store door he could find. As we walked around town, the weather starting to break so we were optimistic that our afternoon might be saved.
We headed out to a "must hike" according to the guide book and thus our adventure started. This was to be a pretty simple hike, at least so the guide book thought, but the guide book doesn't know our propensity to bite off more than we expected to.
Cooper getting some more tee time
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| From Jasper |
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| From Jasper |
Cooper following Jill down the trail
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| From Jasper |
Cooper running across the bridge
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| From Jasper |
Then he had to get a closer look at the water below
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| From Jasper |
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Cooper got tired and decided it was time for a ride
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| From Jasper |
It all happened innocently enough. I misread the map and went left when we should have gone straight. What was supposed to be a 2km hike to a lake suddenly seemed long. When I asked Jill about it she told me I had messed up, but she thought that was my intention. Already somewhat committed to our route, we pressed on.
All you have to do is press the key
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| From Jasper |
Finally, we reached the end of the "big" lake out of the 5 lakes and started our way back around. Thankfully, we were treated to some incredible views of a lake with that beautiful turquoise hue that just doesn't seem real. We hiked along the ridge towards the next lake, and the weather held.
This picture in no way does justice to the gorgeous color of this lake
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| From Jasper |
Just a couple kids out for a hike
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| From Jasper |
It wasn't too long before we hit the fourth and fifth lakes, which again had a color that looks like a special effect. We took some pics, and kept pressing on. Wasn't far from this next picture that it went downhill. We missed a trail junction and ended up bushwacking on a tiny trail that went straight up several fall lines. I can't even count the numbers of fallen trees we had to get over or around.
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| From Jasper |
We pressed on as the skies threatened. Thankfully Cooper had a great time and just giggled as we made our way around the last of the lakes. When we got back to the real trail, we realized there wasn't even a "real" trail that went around the lake we had just made our way around. Tired, but glad to have gotten out especially given the fact we were under weather watch all day.
No worse for the wear, Cooper tries his pacifier the other way
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| From Jasper |
Back in the car, we made a couple more stops along our way home. The first was another gorgeous blue lake that once again didn't really show up in the pics due to the angle and wind. The next was Athabasca Falls, which was really cool. You could just feel the force of the water as you stood near it.
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| From Jasper |
Athabasca Falls
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| From Jasper |
Cooper and Jill posing at the Falls
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| From Jasper |
Other side of the Falls
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| From Jasper |
The run-off below the falls. This canyon had such incredible shape from the water's erosive force of thousands of years.
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| From Jasper |
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| From Jasper |
Then on the way home, we started seeing the wildlife. Jill had been disappointed at the lack of "critters", but then the parade started. We saw a big pack of mountain goats (or bighorn sheep). Then slightly down the road we saw our first bear. A beautiful black bear munching on some grass. Then another 30km down the road we got to see another, and the finally a third bear close to home.
The first bear
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| From Jasper |
The second bear
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| From Jasper |
We had another big highlight of the trip courtesy of a very sleep Super Cooper on the ride home. I'll save that for another post, but it had Jill and I both jaw dropped then in stitches for quite some time.
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