Lake views

I love the cabins at Becker’s Chalets.  The one we are in is so cozy that we had a great night’s sleep.  We definitely needed that since today is our only full day here in Jasper and we have a lot planned.  One of the most popular things to do is to take the Maligne Lake Cruise ($89 CAD / person) and so we booked ourselves on the 11:30am Premium Cruise.  The difference between this cruise and the Classic Cruise is that you get to spend a half an hour at Spirit Island.

We left the cabin just after 9:00am and grabbed a quick breakfast from The Other Paw Bakery.  Even though the drive to Maligne Lake is only about thirty-eight kilometers, we took our time and made many stops.  The road is also known to have a lot of wildlife sightings.  We did see one black bear.  We were very lucky that we had a sun today after two days of rain.

Maligne Lake is the largest lake in the Canadian Rockies at twenty two kilometers.  The first thing I noticed while we were waiting to board the boat was the color of the water.  It was turquoise just like in the Caribbean but much colder.  The other thing I noticed was how the lake was surrounded by various mountains.  The cruise takes you down about fourteen kilometers into the lake and then makes a stop at Spirit Island.  I am so glad that we went with the Premium Cruise because we got to take our time taking pictures of Spirit Island.  It is so beautiful.  We ran into a few people that were upset because their pictures of Spirit Island were being spoiled by the people in kayaks paddling by.

The rest of the afternoon was spent checking other Jasper sites like Old Fort Point, Pyramid Lake and Pyramid Island.  We definitely need to come back to Jasper and spend more time here because there is lots to see and do.

We wanted to actually spend some time at the cabin, so we decided that we would have dinner there.  We grabbed a pizza from Jasper Pizza Place and proceeded to enjoy it along the Athabasca River. 

The day was not over just yet.  We headed back into downtown Jasper and to check out the various shops.  Afterwards, we went out in search of bear and we were successful.  We found a black bear on Highway 93A munching his way along the road.  I am sitting here working on the blog with a roaring fire.  What a great way to end a great day.