Anniversary Trip: Maligne Lake

Happy Friday!  It's been a long week (make that couple of weeks) and I'm certainly looking forward to the weekend.  I've got plans with friends, plans to workout, and plans to bake...and I'm actually looking forward to all three!

In my last post about our anniversary trip I shared photos from Patricia and Pyramid Lake and photos of the mama black bear with her cubs.  This time I have photos from Maligne Lake, which is a little over an hours drive, south-east of Jasper.  The road to the lake winds up through the mountains and despite the fact that it was getting a bit cloudy, we had a great time stopping and exploring along the way...

Not sure what this lake was called, but it wasn't too big and was just a pull-off along the way to Maligne Lake.

Once we made it to Maligne Lake, we decided to take a little hike part way around the lake to stretch our legs and explore.

There was so much of this crazy, bright yellow-green moss all along the lake, it was so neat!

Obsessed much?

On our way back down the winding road that led to Maligne Lake we spotted a couple cars pulled over to the side of the road and a group of guys with huge cameras out snapping photos, so we pulled over.  At first I was hesitant to get out of the car, but then I saw what they were photographing...a large female moose sitting in the woods...

Since she was sitting up on a hill in the woods we decided to get out of the car to get close enough for me to take a photo, but cautiously.  I definitely didn't want to disrupt her at all.  I snapped a couple photos of her before she started to stand...at which point I told Antoine we had to go back to the car.  I don't want to be face to face with a grumpy moose!  Luckily for us, she just stood and headed further up into the woods.

This was both mine and Antoine's first time seeing a moose in person...it was kind of amazing, even though she was pretty far away and laying down most of the time!

That's all for now.  I have more to share for next week, so stay tuned!  Happy weekend, everyone!

Anniversary Trip: Patricia Lake & Pyramid Lake

For our first journey away from the cabin we headed back through the town of Jasper (where we had picked up groceries on our way to the cabin) and slightly north to Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake.  These lakes were fairly free of any crowds whatsoever, which was very nice.

Patricia Lake.  We lucked out with yet another beautiful day to explore!

Pyramid Lake.

On our way back down the mountain toward the town of Jasper, we lucked out again with a couple more animal sightings...

First, these guys munching on some delicious vegetation near the side of the road.

Then this guy being smart and heading away from the road and into the woods.

Then we had our second and final bear sighting of the trip; three for the price of one...

A mama black bear and her two adorable cubs! 

How cute is he/she?!

We were so close to them, just on the other side of the street, it was so exciting!  And all from the safety of our car, which made me very happy!

Stay tuned next time for more Jasper National Park goodness.  Until then, happy weekend everyone!

Anniversary Trip: A Bear and a Very Blue Lake

Good morning, everyone!  I am finally truly back in the real world...not like Friday when I forced myself to go into work and it did not end well!  I've pretty much shaken this whole nasty cold business and I'm ready to get back to sharing some blog posts!  I've actually got a couple lined up for this week.  I know, shocking!  Anyway, here's the next installment from our anniversary trip.

After we visited Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, we continued northwest through Banff National Park towards Jasper.  Along the way we not only saw a bunch more beautiful mountains covered in snow, but we also spotted our first bear of the trip!  And it was a grizzly!

Much to Antoine's dismay, the grizzly bear was a quite a ways away from the road.  But I was actually pretty relieved by this!  I was pretty nervous about seeing bears on our trip, a little paranoid even, so I was thankful that all the bears we saw were from a safe distance or from out car.  And I don't care how far away it was, it was still pretty awesome!

After we spotted the bear we made a stop to check out Peyto Lake.  Unfortunately, the drive to the upper parking lot, which led directly to the view of the lake was closed because it was covered in several feet of snow.  We got to the very small lower parking lot and realized we couldn't find the hiking trail right away because it was covered in snow.  In some places it was a couple feet deep!  But we saw that there were people still braving it and making there way up the path to Peyto Lake, so we figured why not give it a try...we had hiking boots, unlike some people we saw who were wearing tennis shoes or flats!

We did not anticipate that the path would be almost entirely uphill (at an altitude we were not used to) and almost completely covered in snow or ice the whole way up.  I don't know exactly how long the path was, but I can say that it easily felt like 7+ miles.  It was one of those things where as you were hiking up you'd pass people on their way down and without asking they'd give you a progress report, "You're about half way there, but it is totally worth it!"  Yeah, that happened like 4 times.

Near the top, though we had no idea at that point, Antoine just wasn't feeling it and decided to take a break.  At that point I had a crazy burst of energy and decided I would go on ahead and see if we were remotely close to the top...because if I hadn't psyched myself up I probably would have been crying from muscle spasms and lack of oxygen!

This is a rare cleared off portion of the path, and this is looking downhill!

After I left Antoine I walked about 300 more yards, turned a corner, and BEHOLD...

Now, this is the part where I get a little embarrassed by my actions as a wife...I proceeded to stand in awe and take a ton of photos and completely forget that I left my husband a 1/4 mile back saying I would come back for him if we were close!  Oops!

In the end, I don't know if Antoine thought it was worth it.  I mean, I'm sure he did, but not until a day or two later after his lungs had recovered.  But I was just blown away by how blue Peyto Lake was and how gorgeous it was from above.  For me, it was totally worth it and I loved our little adventure...especially since neither of us fell on our asses, even though we saw several other people near wipe-out!

Anniversary Trip: Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

Oh, hi there! I'm sure, if you are a follower of this blog, that you were not at all surprised by my two month absence from posting.  Even if in my last post I said I was hoping to have more photos edited for the following week...oh, silly Jessica!  So unrealistic.  Anyway, I finally got around to editing more photos from our anniversary trip (the one we took back in May!).  I was really excited to finally get to this bunch of photos, because Lake Louise/Moraine Lake were two of my favorite stops in the Banff area.  When you think about going to Banff National Park, this is what usually comes to mind: big, snowy mountains and crystal clear lakes.  

After two nights in Banff, we checked out of our hotel bright and early and started to make our way up to Jasper, where we'd be spending the next three nights.  Our first stop along the way was Lake Louise, which is a big tourist spot and was already starting to get a little crowded with tourist (especially considering how early in the morning it was and the season).  

Antoine and I at Lake Louise

Since it was already getting kind of busy at Lake Louise we decided not to linger too much longer and make our way to Moraine Lake, which is just up the road a bit.  While Lake Louise was utterly beautiful and totally took my breath away, I adored Moraine Lake even more!  A lot of the snow still hadn't melted on the mountains so the lake was only partially full.

Since the lake was only half full you could walk out much farther and stand where the water normally be.  And part of the water that was there was still frozen, but instead of producing solid ice it created these shards of ice that were so cool...

It was like walking on gravel, but it was ice!

Me, standing on part of the frozen lake.

I also really like Moraine Lake because there were so many different vantage points, especially when at this time of year, that you could view the lake from.

I know, I got a bit carried away, but I just loved both lakes and couldn't resist.  Anyway, happy Friday!  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  I'm still trying to get rid of this cold I've had most of the week, so I will probably be taking it easy this weekend.  I will make no promises about further posts, because as we know I'm a lying slacker who likes to make things up! :)