Day 18, August 30

Day 18, August 30

Locations: Athabasca River; Jasper; Maligne Lake Road

Miles driven: 124

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I got up around 6:30 and there were some patches of blue, but it was mostly heavy overcast with rain-type clouds. I decided to head out anyway and just went a few minutes down the road to a pullout. Some nice color appeared over one of the mountains to the north around 7:05. It was covered with low hanging clouds, so I’m not exactly sure which peak it was that I was actually shooting. The color didn’t last very long as the skies went back to gray after I shot a number of pictures. I left here at 8:15 and drove to Jasper.

I got into Jasper around 10:00. I walked into a couple shops looking for postcards and picked up a few. I wrote my sister a birthday card and sent off a couple of postcards to my folks and a couple of friends. I then stopped in at the Jasper Public Library and paid for an hour of internet access ($2.50 for 30 minutes) and left an update for my friends on the Colorado nature photographers site.

I headed down Maligne Lake Road and stopped by Maligne Canyon for awhile and walked down to five of the six bridges. After I was done here, I drove a bit further to Medicine Lake where I had a couple sandwiches at the picnic area and scouted for some compositions where I would come back and shoot at sunset. I then went on to the end of the road to Maligne Lake and parked in the first parking lot. From there, I walked down the trail on the eastern side as I thought I had read somewhere that just a few minutes down the trail, there is an open viewpoint. Though I have never since found where I may have read that, there is indeed an open view where the shore comes to a point five minutes up the trail. I was checking this spot out to see what it would offer for a sunset view. It’s definitely a good spot, and the best spot from along the shore on either side on this end of the lake, so I knew I'd return another day.

I went back to Medicine Lake to wait around for sunset. The clouds still filled the sky and I was fairly certain there would be no oranges and pinks out tonight, so I didn’t drive back to the north end for pictures. Instead, on my way back from Maligne Lake, I stopped at the southern end and shot looking back to the northwest which is a wonderful scene as well. The lake bed was dry on this end and a number of water channels meandered their way around. I had a wonderful glowing blue cloud bank that formed overhead, and I took a bunch of shots as they continually developed. I left here at 8:52.

I started my way back to the Mt. Kerkeslin Campground for another night, and at 9:05, coming down the Maligne Lake road, a car was pulled off to the side, and as I was nearing, there was black bear #5 slowly crossing the road and onto the meadow on the left. I didn't stop. I got back over to the campground between 9:45 and 10:00 and stayed in site #24 for a second night.

7:16 AM — Sunrise somewhere off to the north