We spent an hour walking along the lakeside trail and admiring the gorgeous view. Mr. Handsome’s Tennessee shirt earned us a conversation withe a couple from our neck of the woods. They were on their way back from a long road trip to Alaska and happily told us that the scenery in the Canadian Rockies was better than anything else they had seen on their journey.
Although it is very much in the middle of nowhere (no cell service, either), Maligne lake does have a nice cafeteria, where we purchased an iced coffee. Kind of ironic. After all, it would be a major travesty to have to embark on a mountain hike without first getting your coffee fix.
We browsed the small gift shop and saw this hanging decoration. Mr. Handsome is an avid fisherman, so it made us both chuckle.
Before heading back to our car, we snapped some photos for painting inspiration.
The day was quickly getting away from us, but we want to get a good hike in before dinner, so we stopped at Old Fort Point Loop, near Jasper Townsite, and made the 2.5-mile/4km round-trip to the summit. The 360-degree view was wonderful.
The parks service had even hauled a pair of lawn chairs up there.
We were surprised to only see a few other hikers along the way.
After the hike, we snarfed down pizza at a restaurant in Jasper and then headed east to our accommodations, Miette Hot Springs Resort.
It was 10:30pm when we arrived. The sun had just gone down, and Miette Hot Springs was about to close. Much to our dismay, the “hot springs” is just a regular old swimming pool fed by the hot springs. When we found out that they empty it daily and add chlorine, we weren’t too interested in paying to go swimming.