Yesterday we spent our last day in Jasper. Driving along the main road, the clouds were so low!
We went to Maligne Lake. We took a 90 minute scenic boat cruise out to Spirit Island and back. A young guy from England was the guide and was narrating the tour. The views from the middle of the lake were pretty great, but the weather was a bit cloudy.
Can you see a face looking up to the sky at the top of this mountain?
We stopped at Spirit Island, hopped off the boat, and walked around the island for about 10 minutes, getting lots of photos.
The island had a $250,000 eco-friendly toilet installed on it. Who spends that much on a toilet?! We got back on the boat and headed back to shore. At the carpark we saw a deer :)
We drove past Medicine Lake, and onto Maligne Canyon. Along the way, we saw a bunch of cars stopped along the side of the road, which over here means only one thing: wildlife spotting! Of course, we pull over too. There was a black bear up on the hill, but he was kind of hidden by some bushes. I managed to get an alright photo where you can see his head, but only if you zoom in quite far. (By the way, if you click on the photos on my blog, you can see them larger).
Once at Maligne Canyon we did a 20 minute loop hike. The canyon was so impressive, and so deep!
There was a couple of waterfalls within the canyon.
The canyon even had a random boulder wedged into it at the top.
On our way back to the car we saw Joe (our wildlife tour guide from the previous night). His tour company also does tours of the Maligne Valley, which I was considering doing when I was researching. However, Mum and Dad thought it would be better doing it ourselves. They decided that before we met Joe, and boy were we regretting it. We stopped to say hello, then continued on our way. We stopped at a lookout of the Maligne Valley and ate sandwiches and brownies for lunch :) We headed back to the hotel, and Mum and Dad had a nap; such oldies. We then finished off our souvenir shopping in downtown Jasper, before going out to dinner at a local steakhouse. We had chicken wings as an appetizer, then both Dad and I had ribs for dinner. They were so delicious, but a very messy meal!
Today, we went out for breakfast at a local cafe which was really nice, then we packed and continued on our road trip. We left Jasper, heading to Edmonton. Along the way we stopped at a town called Edson. We went into Tim Horton's, which is kind of like the Canadian's version of Starbucks. It's been in every town we've driven through so we thought we better try it. It's not just a coffee house though, they have lots of nice looking food too. We were still full from breakfast so we just had a drink. We continued onto Edmonton, and along the way we saw a bison farm, which is an animal on lots of the menus here! I don't know how to describe them, just google it! I watched 'What Happens in Vegas' on my ipad. A massive storm came in and the rain was pouring down so bad. It's been off and on all day. We arrived in the city of Edmonton, which is actually huge! We had put in the address of our hotel on the GPS, but she ended up leading us to some weird back street in the suburbs. We got lost a couple of times. We were in Edmonton for about an hour before we finally found our hotel, haha! When we got out of the car it was so extremely windy, and as soon as we got to our room, the storm hit and there was pouring rain, thunder, lightning, and even hail! We were so lucky we got in our room safe and sound before it hit. Here's a photo of the hail in the carpark, it looks like snow!
We're just chilling in our hotel room right now. We're going out for an early dinner tonight as we're starving! We didn't have lunch. We'll be spending the next two days at West Edmonton Mall. It's the largest mall in North America, and the fifth largest mall in the world. It has an amusement park with a rollercoaster, a waterpark, an aquarium, an ice skating rink, two mini golf courses, oh and around 800 stores, too! I'm so excited for it!
Love,
Emily
Once at Maligne Canyon we did a 20 minute loop hike. The canyon was so impressive, and so deep!
There was a couple of waterfalls within the canyon.
The canyon even had a random boulder wedged into it at the top.
On our way back to the car we saw Joe (our wildlife tour guide from the previous night). His tour company also does tours of the Maligne Valley, which I was considering doing when I was researching. However, Mum and Dad thought it would be better doing it ourselves. They decided that before we met Joe, and boy were we regretting it. We stopped to say hello, then continued on our way. We stopped at a lookout of the Maligne Valley and ate sandwiches and brownies for lunch :) We headed back to the hotel, and Mum and Dad had a nap; such oldies. We then finished off our souvenir shopping in downtown Jasper, before going out to dinner at a local steakhouse. We had chicken wings as an appetizer, then both Dad and I had ribs for dinner. They were so delicious, but a very messy meal!
Today, we went out for breakfast at a local cafe which was really nice, then we packed and continued on our road trip. We left Jasper, heading to Edmonton. Along the way we stopped at a town called Edson. We went into Tim Horton's, which is kind of like the Canadian's version of Starbucks. It's been in every town we've driven through so we thought we better try it. It's not just a coffee house though, they have lots of nice looking food too. We were still full from breakfast so we just had a drink. We continued onto Edmonton, and along the way we saw a bison farm, which is an animal on lots of the menus here! I don't know how to describe them, just google it! I watched 'What Happens in Vegas' on my ipad. A massive storm came in and the rain was pouring down so bad. It's been off and on all day. We arrived in the city of Edmonton, which is actually huge! We had put in the address of our hotel on the GPS, but she ended up leading us to some weird back street in the suburbs. We got lost a couple of times. We were in Edmonton for about an hour before we finally found our hotel, haha! When we got out of the car it was so extremely windy, and as soon as we got to our room, the storm hit and there was pouring rain, thunder, lightning, and even hail! We were so lucky we got in our room safe and sound before it hit. Here's a photo of the hail in the carpark, it looks like snow!
We're just chilling in our hotel room right now. We're going out for an early dinner tonight as we're starving! We didn't have lunch. We'll be spending the next two days at West Edmonton Mall. It's the largest mall in North America, and the fifth largest mall in the world. It has an amusement park with a rollercoaster, a waterpark, an aquarium, an ice skating rink, two mini golf courses, oh and around 800 stores, too! I'm so excited for it!
Love,
Emily
Sounds liike you are having a great time and becoming experts on Canadian wildlife. Happy shopping!
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