Pacific NW 11 - Jasper and Lake Louise

    

     Now we started to turn east on our loop, over the mountains and back into Alberta, to Jasper National Park.  We were leaving behind the remoter corners of BC and getting more into mainstream tourism.  Jasper, the town, though small and picturesque, with a boulder strewn mountain stream, is a tourist haunt.
    We stayed in a very comfortable park lodge established in the 1920s.  Oddly, it has an excellent upscale restaurant, with some of the best food we had on the trip (and a vast wine list), but also a pub where the food was absolutely dire.
    Next day, with the weather turning distinctly moody, we travelled to Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake, nearby.  The first was surrounded with the blackened remains of pines - a forest fire had swept through here the year before - but even this did little to diminish the beauty of the mountains and lake.  Nearby we were able to see a bald eagle nesting, its white head peeking out above the massive nest at the extreme high pint of one of the less damaged trees.
     We walked around part of Maligne Lake, soon well away from other people, and sat to contemplate the mountains and the silence.
     We next followed the Icefields Parkway south, calling in at the Athabasca Falls, deeply incised canyons filled with massive torrents; then to the Columbia ice field, a rather heavily exploited tourist spot that was largely clouded (and crowded) out, spotting more eagles along the way, as well as a moose on a leisurely stroll across the road.
     Lake Louise itself has a few impressive buildings from the early 20th century, notably the station. 
We stayed in a rather odd Best Western with split level rooms that smelled strongly of bacon.  The famous old Fairmont hotel, well out of town on the shore of the lake, is a bit of a disappointment, full of Asian tour groups and expensive handbag outlets so that it feels like an airport departure lounge.  If you walk along the edge of the lake you can quickley get away from the crowds and enjoy the deep aquamarines of the lake and the encompassing mountains beyond.