September 15, Day 14, Jasper, Medicine Lake, Maligne Lake

This was one of those days. It started out like this

cold, rainy, pretty much socked in. So we joined everybody else in Jasper (at least it seemed like it) at the local Laundra-bar and Coffee-mat.

We finished our laundry, putzed around Jasper for a while, had lunch in a little diner, spent a lot of time and a little money in a shop called Our Native Land (the specialize in First Nations artists), and then had one of those what-the-hell moments and headed out towards Maligne Lake.

Maligne Lake is the source of the Maligne River, creator of the Maligne Canyon.

On the road out the weather didn't look to promising. Our first stop was Medicine Lake, also known as the "disappearing lake." In the spring and early summer, fed by melting snow and the Maligne River from Maligne Lake, Medicine Lake overflows its banks. By late summer the lake starts to disappear. Which is even stranger because there is no visible exit, no creek, no river, from the lake. Where does the water go?

The answer is in the geology of the area. The water actually goes "out the bottom" like water down a bathtub drain through sinkholes in the limestone. It emerges nearly 16 km (10 miles) downstream near the beginning of the Maligne Canyon. The underground Maligne River is one of the largest sinking rivers in North American. It may be the longest inaccessible cave system in the world. (source: Park Canada)

All around the Medicine Lake pull-out we saw the remains of a pretty major, very recent forest fire. On July 1 a lightening strike started a smoldering fire near-by. By July extremely hot, dry windy conditions fanned the blaze to life. On July 11 temperatures cooled and there was rain, helping fire crews battle the blaze. By July 22 the fire was contained and the road through to Maligne Lake was reopened. In all, nearly 10 square kilometers were burned.

We headed off toward Maligne Lake and there were hints the weather was improving.

By the time we started hiking a trail near the lake we had sunshine.

And blue skies.

There were bear warnings in many of the areas we hiked in. We didn't see any bears but on this trail we did see very fresh bear scat so one was close by.

Maligne Lake, elevation 1697 meters (5568 feet), is one of the most photographed lakes in the Canadian Rockies. Cody Peterson's boathouse made a perfect postcard. I had fun playing with the image.

And I just couldn't resist:

On the way down to Jasper from Maligne Lake we were treated to a beautiful mountain sunset.