After 9 days of calorie intake being greater than calories burned through exercise, Jo and I decided to go for a run before breakfast. We picked an out and back route north from the hotel in Jasper to the H.J. Moberly Bridge which is the first crossing point over the Athabasca River.
With an 8k run done, we went for a waffles breakfast – all had the same variation, with eggs, bacon, cheese and maple syrup. Jo also picked a banana and peanut butter smoothie.
Then a little stroll around town. Probably the biggest remaining sign of the huge wildfire that reached Jasper 12 months ago was a burned out petrol station. There were 4 in Jasper, now 2 remain. One exploded, this one didn’t but the damage is clearly severe. In total, 37,000 hectares of forest were destroyed.
Snacks and dinner followed – the Mr Big chocolate bar was mostly like a Kit-Kat crossed with a Picnic, but was huge. Clue is in the name.
On the way back from dinner, we came across a sign. Now, we have been having long debates about whether the term “handicapped” is still allowed, but apparently in Canada it is. We’re not so sure it should be.
After eating we headed off for our Jasper Dark Skies Planetarium Experience. That was $148 wasted. Utterly appalling waste of time, so saying no more about it.
That evening we decided to go for another drive up the Maligne Lake Road, given last night had been so successful. And wow, so much wildlife, more that the guided tour, with some serious close-up experiences. Before the wildlife though, we stopped at the Maligne Canyon to see for ourselves the extreme damage. It’s closed to all access, but you can see it from a viewpoint above.
Before long we spot our first wildlife, an elk and a mule deer on a ridgeline.
We stopped again at the bald eagle nest to try to see the adult and two young – we saw one of the youngsters in the nest calling (identified by Jo using Merlin), then both of them flying around in the distance, but little else other than a distant rainbow.
A little further on we saw the osprey nest again, no change from the previous visit.
Before long we saw mule deer which seem relatively plentiful in the area, and not at all afraid of visitors.
Then onto the main event. Moose. A seemingly young (or stupid) moose which kept testing a road sign, and wasn’t too impressed with it by the way it jumped back when it made a noise. After playing with it he (very) slowly crossed the road and began to feed on the other side.
We got some of this behaviour on video too!
After the moose we carried on up, then down from Maligne Lake and saw a white tailed deer very briefly before it disappeared, another moose with its calf drinking by a river, and a mule deer. A really good evening of looking for wildlife.
