Had a great first day hiking around Jasper. We figured we hiked about 6 miles. The scenery was just spectacular….lots of clear, fast flowing mountain streams and rivers, waterfalls, and crystal clear lakes surrounded by the Canadian Rockies.  The water is really flowing from the snow melting off the surrounding mountains. The bad news for me is that this makes the fishing really tough. In fact, the local outfitters I spoke with said it’s just not a good time to catch fish. Best time around here is early spring and later in the fall.  We walked around town and stopped for a beer at the De’d Dog Cafe. On the way to Lake Maligne we saw a Big Horn sheep. They are very impressive animals………. it created quite a “animal jam” on the road. Unfortunately, the people ahead of us didn’t seem to care if the folks behind got to see the animal up close so we never got in position for a good picture before a ranger intentionally scared the animal away to free up the traffic. Maligne Lake, which is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies,  is also very remote.  Its hard to imagine people riding on horseback for days just to get there.

I always like to pick up  nice t-shirts when visiting a memorable location but so far we have not been able to find any of suitable quality……just lots of the cheap ones that will look bad after a couple washes. I can never understand why popular tourist destinations like these would not have a good selection of high quality, logo t-shirts. We also didn’t find any at the Calgary Stampede. We’ll keep looking.

Nancy took a late afternoon bike ride into Jasper and just missed seeing a Grizzly  with her 2 cubs.  There was a small crowd along the river that gathered to watch the bears but when Nancy got there they had just retreated into the woods. Maybe they will be back tomorrow.  With the bike ride, Nancy’s Apple watch logged 20,450 steps today!

We will soon have a Youtube channel to use for sharing video’s. Our web hosting service limits the size of file we can post on the blog so they suggested we use links to YouTube to show video’s.  Given the very poor internet service in and around Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise, we will probably only be posting updates and pics every 2-3 days.

The first few pics below are of a windy rock crevice with fast-moving water flowing through it (Maligne Canyon). It is so deep that in many places you can only hear the high volume of rushing water. And in many places, it was only a few yards wide but 75-100 feet deep. I can only imagine how many years it took to carve that gorge through solid rock. As most of you know, pictures just don’t do mother nature’s most spectacular creations much justice……that is certainly the case with the pictures below.