2010 Canadian Parks Tour - Day #4 Back through Jasper

As I mentioned, I stayed overnight in Hinton, AB. The Howard Johnson folks kindly offered to let me park my bike in a No Parking zone, right outside the window...they offer that privilege to motorcyclists so their bikes will be in sight over night. A nice considerations:


Another result of glacial activity: a local beer brand named after huge glacial erratic (deposited boulder) in Okotoks.


An large grizzly statue outside of a nearby grocery store:


heading back into Jasper National Park


A historical marker for the former Jasper House


And some elk:


Shortly after riding into the park, I cut over towards Maligne Lake. That was not my goal but the next stop, Medicine Lake, lies on the way to Maligne Lake. Stopped to photograph this bear warning...and that digital camera has not worked since.


Luckily, my cell phone has a passable camera built in and I was able to capture these photos of Medicine Lake, my last objective in the National Parks. Medicine Lake is an oddity, as it empties out annually through an underground cave system known as 'karst'. Thus, it fills with glacial melt water during the warm months but empties out as dropping temperatures rob it of its water source. First Nations peoples originally called it Magic Lake.


Leaving Medicine Lake, I noted an impressive bull elk eating by the side of the road, with a small traffic jam developing and numerous people without sufficient instinct for self preservation gathering around it. I hope it was not a Darwin Award in the making!