Burning rubber in Canada - Part 7, The Jasper National Park - Prince George

  Hi there

     Today we planned  to do some trail hiking , however since Malhar was not feeling well his mom Netrali decided to stay back. I  wanted to go on a trail around the town, while Deepak wanted to go in nearby mountains . Accordingly he dropped me at the start of the trail and Deepak alongwith Shaunak went on a trail of  Maligne canyon , they started from the first bridge.

   My trail was a  3 hour Jasper's Discovery Trail. This trail circles around the town ,it can be started from anywhere in the town .The best part is even if you dont have a GPS or map you can do the trail by just following the bear symbol marks .What a amazing thing of navigation!!!

Start of trail with bear symbol

   The trail was simple, it did have some climbs and almost circles the whole town,at many places one gets spectacular view of the town as well as nearby Rockies . The weather was so crisp that I never felt tired or out of breath , off course at more than one occasion I got wet due to sudden down pour .

Spectacular view of the town

At one point this boards were displayed giving history 

     At one place near the railway tracks I saw a group of deer's grazing and they were roaming on the highway too, causing the motorist to either stop or slow down . After some time I saw park rangers coming to the spot and shoo away the deer's in the nearby forest.

    Deepak and Shaunak did the Maligne Canyon trail , the canyon is on Maligne river , that originates at Maligne lake, flows underground from medicine lake  until it reaches Maligne Canyon . At the canyon , carved into the Palliser Formation , a layer of limestone deposited in a shallow tropical sea by lime-secreting plankton , the underground streams join force, to become the mighty flowing water that still whittles the canyon away .  The canyon was named by a zealous Jesuit missionary, who called the canyon “la traverse maligne”, after his horses were swept away by the swirling waters . 

    There are six bridges built across the canyon to help one explore this magnificent work of nature the first bridge was built in 1914.

Bridge on the Canyon

Swirling water 

Shaunak

  Milk river !!!!

This is the first time when they spotted a full grown Elk from a very close distance , it was a majestic animal with its fully grown horns.

Deepak and Shaunak

   We almost reached back at the same time , rejuvenated by our rest and hikes we decided to check out and travel to our next halt  Prince George . For  this travel the steering wheel was passed on to Netrali . We had quick lunch and off we went to our next halt .

    

Good bye to our beautiful stay in Jasper

    While we were on highway 16 , we came across this group of mountain goats ,  they halted the traffic for almost 1 hour , but I never saw any impatient driver either honking or trying to shoo them off , I was told in Canada there is very heavy fine if you meet with an accident with wildlife and off course its your fault , they have the right of way on any road in Canada .
 

Vehicles halted to let the wildlife pass

Elk on road side

   By the time  we reached our  rain forest themed Super 8 hotel , it was pretty late in the evening . After a quick wash we headed for dinner to Boston Pizza as most of the other places had got closed.

    Our earlier experience with Boston Pizza was superb especially the one in Banff . However when we reached the place it was empty and few guest were present , the waiter came after a long wait , when we asked for certain changes in pizza which were already on the menu he flatly refused rudely to accommodate the request , further long wait, he came back with our order forgetting to get water. The attitude of the waiter was the only bad experience I had during my stay in Canada , he was totally opposite what Canada is , and after this incident I checked the rating in trip advisor,off course he must have done with other guest too , rating was poor in trip adviser too, I also added to it .

   I felt it is better to call a spade a spade rather than give a false rating as many people read review and decide to visit a place , also I did not wanted any one going though the same experience.

    It was a long day and time to hit the bed ,and off we went to bed for a beautiful day ahead tomorrow.

Ride Safe Firm Saddle