Valley of the Five Lakes

During his run around the campground perimeter this morning, Greg saw elk grazing in the grass. Dozens of elk. Since he had his phone while running, Greg took a few photos. But there are signs around the campground warning that elk are dangerous right now while the females are protecting their calves. So Greg turned around and ran away.

Next, we drove to the trailhead for the Valley of the Five Lakes. This is a popular trail on the south end of Jasper. Our GuideAlong audio tour said the trail was closed due to damage from the 2024 wildfire, but it was most definitely open again. (And Greg contacted them with a bug report).

As the name suggests, the main attraction is that the trail makes a loop around five lakes. The lakes are creatively named First Lake, Second Lake, Third Lake, Fourth Lake and Fifth Lake. They are also creatively named Lac Première, Lac Deuxième, Lac Troisième, Lac Quatrième et Lac Cinquième, because Canada, eh. When you hike the trail, you get the choice of hiking in ascending or descending order. We chose to hike in ascending order. The trail was pleasant but not spectacular. It got crowded as the morning went on, so we were glad that we started early.

After lunch, Amy wanted to explore the town of Jasper. Unlike the town of Banff, we found parking quite easily. We visited the Visitor Centre [sic] to shop for National Park patches for our collection, but Amy was outraged by the prices. (“We’re on a fixed income” is our justification not to buy something). We walked by Bear’s Paw Bakery, which Amy recognized from the mobile coffee trailer at the campground. We stopped in to buy Nanaimo Bars, then continued to walk past the souvenir shops. When we reached the RV, we ran into another couple who have a Winnebago View RV, with stickers from the same RV dealer we used that is adjacent to the Winnebago factory. We had a nice chat with them about the RVs and about travel.

In the late afternoon, we drove to Miette Hot Springs, near the north end of Jasper National Park. Along the road, cars stopped to view a grizzly bear, but we didn’t see it ourselves so we can’t count it. When we arrived at the hot springs, Greg cooked a simple dinner inside the RV, then we soaked in the hot springs. Even though we arrived at 7pm, it was quite crowded. Again, we were jaded by an Alaska experience, specifically the Liard River Hot Springs on the Alcan Highway. A Canadian family from near Edmonton said the same thing. So it’s not just us.

We left at early dusk, hoping the late hour would lead to more wildlife along the drive. However, the only things we saw were one deer and more elk. No bears nor bighorn sheep.