FRIDAY, SAT, & SUNDAY, JULY 18, 19, & 20

FRIDAY, SAT, & SUN – JULY 18, 19, & 20:

     As predicted, mostly rain.  The mountain weather is so different from what we’re used to in the mid-west.  There will be huge dark grey & black clouds dominating one part of the sky, and so you know that rain is imminent; yet turn around, and in another section of the sky, it will be blue!  Turn around 180 again, and the pattern will have reversed itself!  So very challenging to try & figure out what the next hour or two will be like, let alone the entire morning or afternoon.  Hence, we stayed inside our snug RV most of the time, reading, snoozing, catching up on miscellaneous chores, etc.

     We did venture out mid-afternoon on Saturday, when it appeared that there was more blue sky in between the dark clouds than not.  We took the opportunity to hike Maligne Canyon.  This is a very narrow gorge at the east end of the National Park (so only about 20 minutes or so from our home base), where the Maligne River meanders freely until it gets choked by this narrow gorge, and then exults in several waterfall free-for-all’s.

                                                                   

 

 

 

Gorgeous rock walls.

 

 

One of the great things about this walk/hike is that you don’t need a beautiful clear day to enjoy it; you’re not looking out across mountain vista expanses, you’re looking at the canyon right in front of you.  So, even though we did get rained on a little, it didn’t mar our enjoyment of this short scenic hike. (The river& canyon are so named because a Jesuit priest who was in the area had a “difficult” time getting his horse across the river (to say the least!), and he cursed the river, calling it “maligne”, or “evil.”)

 

After our hike, we continued climbing up the Maligne Canyon Road for about about 10-15  miles, coming upon stunning Medicine Lake.

 

 

 

One fascinating thing we learned is that the lake doesn’t have an outflow river into the Maligne River.  Therefore, the Maligne River simply runs dry and stops a few miles beyond the lake.  The explanation:  the lake drains through an underground karst system –i.e., a series of connected limestone caves.  It’s through these underground caves that the lake’s water eventually finds its way to the Maligne River, whereupon is begins its powerful flow downstream once again. 

                                                                       

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A related phenomenon is that towards the end of summer and throughout the winter, the large lake seems to disappear, and only dry land is left.  This is due to the underground drainage as well.  In the spring & early summer, the upstream rivers carrying snow and ice and glacier melt all contribute massive amounts of water to fill the lake.  The lake is draining underground, but not at a fast enough rate to negate the onslaught of new water flowing in.  But as those meltwater sources diminish throughout the season, the drainage underground exceeds the fresh inflow – hence, a dry lake.  The Natives were so entranced by this mystery that they thought that “Big Medicine” must be at work – hence the name Medicine Lake.

      Just up the road from Medicine Lake is equally beautiful Maligne Lake.  Commercial boat tours are available here – we’ll see if we want to do that or not. 

 

Saw elk, deer, & even a black bear on this outing.    

 

We tried to find a church either here in Hinton or in Jasper for Sunday morning worship.  But between the WiFi being very slow and timing out and addresses not being complete, we came up empty.

 

Sunday evening it did clear temporarily enough for Bill to grill marinated chicken outdoors.  Served it with a packaged herbed rice mix that I had actually gotten last year in Canada towards the end of our trip, either in the Yukon or on the Cassiar Hwy.  I can tell that I purchased it in Canada because everything on the packaging is in both French & English. And, coincidentally, the marinade we used on the chicken also came from Canada last  year.  Evoked so many memories of that trip – how grand it was in every way!

 

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