Jasper
I'd always known that the landscape and vegetation of Canada was going to be vastly different to what I was used to growing up on the Coast in Aotearoa but there is literally nothing that can prepare you for it. No amount of looking at the perfect lake shot on insta or scrolling through travel pictures can prepare you for the change.
I've done plenty of road trips before but nothing had ever felt this 'American Movie' road trip before.
Red Jeep Wrangler; Check. Acres upon acres of towering pole pines lining the never ending asphalt in every hue of brown and green; Check. the mountainous snow capped behemoth that is the Canadian Rockies; Check.
Driving through the Iceparkway was an experience in itself. I cannot stress enough how giant the Rockies are - they literally looked like a backdrop.
Their size in unreal. Snow carpeted the parking lot of the Columbian Icefield Centre, Laura, Kieran and I still clad in our skimpy clothes and jandals whilst the other bustling tourists were dressed for temperatures below freezing. We'd only gotten out to stretch our legs and capture a couple of shots of the Icefields themselves before continuing on our journey to Jasper. By this point all the car napping had me recharged and I was eager to get to our next destination.
The tiny Alpine town of Jasper reminded me a lot of Queenstown or Wanaka back home but somehow gave off a semi western vibe as well. The railway runs parallel to the main road of the town and I could almost imagine what life would have been like years ago - Horse and carts waiting to pick up people exiting out of the station, the hussle and bussle of everyone wandering through the snow covered, coblestoned streets, clad in layers of clothing to keep the cold out.
We whipped down a street back from main until we found the Jasper Downtown Hostel nestled on the corner of Patricia Street and Prymid Lake Road. I admired the quaint building with the red roof while Kieran found a place to park the jeep after we had unloaded our bags. We grabbed our keys, paid our deposit and headed up to our bedroom.
Thankfully this hostel was a private room with our own bathroom so once we were settled in and showered we decided to head out to find something to eat.
I honestly love exploring new places - and even though the town itself didn't have much to offer I'm always interested in watching people go about their daily business. After a somewhat heated discussion about what food everyone wanted (we were all a little bit hangry) we finally settled on a tiny pizza place tucked away up on the main street that served pastas and hotwings - everyone was catered for - and settled in to eat our dinner out on the chairs and tables on the sidewalk.
Even though the days had been a scorcher so far, once the sun set behind those mountains the chill came out and I was grateful that I had thought to wear my new 'Canada' sweater and denim jacket. Once we were done with dinner we all headed back home, popped into the shop across the street for snacks and all but collapsed into bed - we were all exhausted.
Tuesday 15th May started leisurely with all of us rising slowing and getting ready at our own pace. We'd seen an honest to goodness diner on our travels the night before and we were eager to try it out - the menu looked amazing and extensive. We had a very cheery and moderately funny waiter who popped around constantly with coffee refills. I ordered a big breakfast, as did Laura and Kieran had eggs benedict.
After breakfast we headed back to the hostel and asked the guy at
the front desk what were the best places to go and things to do while in Jasper. He gave us a list of lakes to visit so once we gathered all our things we headed out - first stop Maligne Canyon.
The hike is a 3.4km loop that runs all around the side of the canyon - which is 50m deep.
Down the very bottom of the canyon runs the Maligne river - fed from Medicine Lake. The river is loud and powerful and there's a point where the waterfall sprays can be felt all the way back up to the path. The full loop took only about 30 minutes but it was a struggle for me to head back up all those stairs to the parking lot - I was so unfit and my asthma wasn't helping any.
Next we decided to hit up Maligne Lake. We had a rough idea of where we needed to go but unfortunately we didn't think to put the coordinates into our GPS before hitting the road that morning and we were out in back country with no reception - we were also heading towards a quarter tank of gas and no way of knowing how far it would carry us. The GPS still showed us a vague idea of the road we should take so we headed towards what looked like lakes on the map. We drove past Medicine Lake and decided to keep going - we made it all of about 15 minutes before we decided to turn around. We didn't want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere - and even if we were able to make it to Maligne Lake we wouldn't have been able to head back home. So back to Medicine Lake we went.
The scenery around Medicine Lake was eerie and melancholic. On the left the slate grey of the mountain stretches all the way up to the heavens and to the right the vegetation leading out of the lake is brown and lifeless. Giant boulders and stones litter the surrounding area, almost as if the mountain had errupted and spewed its contents everywhere. Leading up from that are acres upon acres of charred, blackened pole pines. The only sounds are that of an occasional passing car, the stagnant air making you feel alone and uneasy.
After messing around taking a few photos and videos for the trip we piled back into the car and headed for home and a gas station.
The ergonomics and aerodynamic properties of a Jeep Wrangler is not the first thing we thought about when picking the car - the only thing we cared about is that it looked cool. But the flat, almost 90 degree windshield hadn't prepared us for the amount of bugs that would lose their lives there - it was a bug splattered graveyard, the window was filthy.
We spent a solid portion of our gas station trip cleaning the windshield after the day old bug bodies that littered it. For some reason the Canadian window washing was just water and no detergent so not only did it take us forever but after about 15 minutes of trying to clean the windscreen, it wasn't even clean.
We still had quite a lot of daylight left as the sun wasn't setting till about 10pm at least so we decided to make our way to a few closer lakes. We stopped off at Mirror Lake, which was absolutely beautiful, surrounded by clumps of yellow green and emerald green trees - we laughed til we cried at Kieran being attacked by a bee and us capturing the whole thing via pictures.
We headed round to Lake Edith and Lake Annette and watched a very playful Labradoodle showing off for everyone relaxing on the shore. His poor owner got completely drenched as the pup decided that jumping up and down in the lake then jumping on his owner was a good idea. I wanted nothing more than to give the pup a giant cuddle.
Once home we decided that we would just do our own thing for dinner so I had some spicey Korean instant noodles, Kieran had pizza and Laura had some leftovers before we settled in to watch a couple of movies and drift of to sleep. The next day was take two on Maligne Lake.
Wednesday 16th May started slow. We were all super exhausted from all the activities the day before. We didn't surface till about 11am and we didn't decide to leave til about early afternoon.
We saw a heard of Caribou on our way out to Maligne Lake as well as another bear. The lake was beautiful. It stretched on for miles, the water trailing through the mountains still partially frozen. You'd think after seeing one lake you'd seen them all but every one we encountered held a different sort of magic. Maligne lake held the memories of everyone who had ventured out on the water in summer, whether it be for fishing or just to relax. It held the sound of countless splashes and playful screaming while families and couples picnicked along the waters edge. The air held the fresh smell of pines summer days that seemed to never end.
We walked along the path along the lake, stopping to play in the patches of snow that still clung to what was left of the dwindling winter and fooled around on the waters edge trying to get sweet pics for the gram.
We spent the majority of our afternoon pottering around the lake before we decided to head home. I was getting grouchy from being around people for so many days and just wanted to relax. We decided to head out to our little Pizza place from the first night for dinner before settling in for an early night. We were heading to Banff the next day.
I've done plenty of road trips before but nothing had ever felt this 'American Movie' road trip before.
Red Jeep Wrangler; Check. Acres upon acres of towering pole pines lining the never ending asphalt in every hue of brown and green; Check. the mountainous snow capped behemoth that is the Canadian Rockies; Check.
Driving through the Iceparkway was an experience in itself. I cannot stress enough how giant the Rockies are - they literally looked like a backdrop.
Their size in unreal. Snow carpeted the parking lot of the Columbian Icefield Centre, Laura, Kieran and I still clad in our skimpy clothes and jandals whilst the other bustling tourists were dressed for temperatures below freezing. We'd only gotten out to stretch our legs and capture a couple of shots of the Icefields themselves before continuing on our journey to Jasper. By this point all the car napping had me recharged and I was eager to get to our next destination.
The tiny Alpine town of Jasper reminded me a lot of Queenstown or Wanaka back home but somehow gave off a semi western vibe as well. The railway runs parallel to the main road of the town and I could almost imagine what life would have been like years ago - Horse and carts waiting to pick up people exiting out of the station, the hussle and bussle of everyone wandering through the snow covered, coblestoned streets, clad in layers of clothing to keep the cold out.
We whipped down a street back from main until we found the Jasper Downtown Hostel nestled on the corner of Patricia Street and Prymid Lake Road. I admired the quaint building with the red roof while Kieran found a place to park the jeep after we had unloaded our bags. We grabbed our keys, paid our deposit and headed up to our bedroom.
Thankfully this hostel was a private room with our own bathroom so once we were settled in and showered we decided to head out to find something to eat.
I honestly love exploring new places - and even though the town itself didn't have much to offer I'm always interested in watching people go about their daily business. After a somewhat heated discussion about what food everyone wanted (we were all a little bit hangry) we finally settled on a tiny pizza place tucked away up on the main street that served pastas and hotwings - everyone was catered for - and settled in to eat our dinner out on the chairs and tables on the sidewalk.
Even though the days had been a scorcher so far, once the sun set behind those mountains the chill came out and I was grateful that I had thought to wear my new 'Canada' sweater and denim jacket. Once we were done with dinner we all headed back home, popped into the shop across the street for snacks and all but collapsed into bed - we were all exhausted.
Tuesday 15th May started leisurely with all of us rising slowing and getting ready at our own pace. We'd seen an honest to goodness diner on our travels the night before and we were eager to try it out - the menu looked amazing and extensive. We had a very cheery and moderately funny waiter who popped around constantly with coffee refills. I ordered a big breakfast, as did Laura and Kieran had eggs benedict.
After breakfast we headed back to the hostel and asked the guy at
The hike is a 3.4km loop that runs all around the side of the canyon - which is 50m deep.
Down the very bottom of the canyon runs the Maligne river - fed from Medicine Lake. The river is loud and powerful and there's a point where the waterfall sprays can be felt all the way back up to the path. The full loop took only about 30 minutes but it was a struggle for me to head back up all those stairs to the parking lot - I was so unfit and my asthma wasn't helping any.
Next we decided to hit up Maligne Lake. We had a rough idea of where we needed to go but unfortunately we didn't think to put the coordinates into our GPS before hitting the road that morning and we were out in back country with no reception - we were also heading towards a quarter tank of gas and no way of knowing how far it would carry us. The GPS still showed us a vague idea of the road we should take so we headed towards what looked like lakes on the map. We drove past Medicine Lake and decided to keep going - we made it all of about 15 minutes before we decided to turn around. We didn't want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere - and even if we were able to make it to Maligne Lake we wouldn't have been able to head back home. So back to Medicine Lake we went.
The scenery around Medicine Lake was eerie and melancholic. On the left the slate grey of the mountain stretches all the way up to the heavens and to the right the vegetation leading out of the lake is brown and lifeless. Giant boulders and stones litter the surrounding area, almost as if the mountain had errupted and spewed its contents everywhere. Leading up from that are acres upon acres of charred, blackened pole pines. The only sounds are that of an occasional passing car, the stagnant air making you feel alone and uneasy. After messing around taking a few photos and videos for the trip we piled back into the car and headed for home and a gas station.
The ergonomics and aerodynamic properties of a Jeep Wrangler is not the first thing we thought about when picking the car - the only thing we cared about is that it looked cool. But the flat, almost 90 degree windshield hadn't prepared us for the amount of bugs that would lose their lives there - it was a bug splattered graveyard, the window was filthy.
We spent a solid portion of our gas station trip cleaning the windshield after the day old bug bodies that littered it. For some reason the Canadian window washing was just water and no detergent so not only did it take us forever but after about 15 minutes of trying to clean the windscreen, it wasn't even clean.
We still had quite a lot of daylight left as the sun wasn't setting till about 10pm at least so we decided to make our way to a few closer lakes. We stopped off at Mirror Lake, which was absolutely beautiful, surrounded by clumps of yellow green and emerald green trees - we laughed til we cried at Kieran being attacked by a bee and us capturing the whole thing via pictures. We headed round to Lake Edith and Lake Annette and watched a very playful Labradoodle showing off for everyone relaxing on the shore. His poor owner got completely drenched as the pup decided that jumping up and down in the lake then jumping on his owner was a good idea. I wanted nothing more than to give the pup a giant cuddle.
Once home we decided that we would just do our own thing for dinner so I had some spicey Korean instant noodles, Kieran had pizza and Laura had some leftovers before we settled in to watch a couple of movies and drift of to sleep. The next day was take two on Maligne Lake.
Wednesday 16th May started slow. We were all super exhausted from all the activities the day before. We didn't surface till about 11am and we didn't decide to leave til about early afternoon.
We saw a heard of Caribou on our way out to Maligne Lake as well as another bear. The lake was beautiful. It stretched on for miles, the water trailing through the mountains still partially frozen. You'd think after seeing one lake you'd seen them all but every one we encountered held a different sort of magic. Maligne lake held the memories of everyone who had ventured out on the water in summer, whether it be for fishing or just to relax. It held the sound of countless splashes and playful screaming while families and couples picnicked along the waters edge. The air held the fresh smell of pines summer days that seemed to never end.
We walked along the path along the lake, stopping to play in the patches of snow that still clung to what was left of the dwindling winter and fooled around on the waters edge trying to get sweet pics for the gram.
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