Maligne Lake Boathouse at Dusk

Photo Copyright: Stephen A. Nelson

Maligne Lake Boathouse, Jasper at Dusk

Photo by Stephen A. Nelson

Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, a Different Point of View

China Plate Blue

Photo by Stephen A. Nelson

An accidental crop of Maligne Lake Boathouse at dusk.

Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, the Lawren Harris Group of Seven Way?

When Evening Falls

Photo By Stephen A. Nelson

A view of Maligne Lake, in Jasper National Park, at dusk. 

No special effects, FX, PhotoShop or CGI here.

Except for the boathouse, I imagine this is how Lawren Harris might have seen it when he came here.

I took this photo while leading a Japanese television crew on a tour of the Maligne Valley.

We followed up with dinner at the Kimchi House in Jasper - best Korean food this side of Seoul.

This Is Paradise: Magnificent Maligne Lake and Wonderful Whistlers' Peak in Jasper

Story and Photo By Stephen A. Nelson

The Canadian Press

"If I have only one day in Jasper, what's the one thing I MUST do?"

As a resident, my answer is usually the same: "It depends what you want to do. It depends what you're interested in."

Some prefer placid lakes and picture-perfect postcard scenery. Others prefer high adventure on the mountaintop.

If you were my guest in Jasper, I hope you would stay more than one day. Six days of (re)creation would be suitable for a place many believe to be Paradise.

But if you have only a short time in Jasper, here's what I would show you.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1211696

This Is Paradise: Maligne Lake, Jasper Tramway/ The Whistlers in Jasper National Park

By Stephen A. Nelson

For the Brandon Sun

“If I’ve only got one day in Jasper, what’s the one thing I MUST do?”
Well, if you were my guest in Jasper, I would hope you would stay more than one day. Six days of (re)creation would be suitable for a place many believe to be Paradise.
But if you have only a short time in Jasper, here’s what I would show you...

Good Medicine: Magical Lake in the Maligne Valley

 Summer visitors assume that Medicine is a normal mountain lake, but it isn't.

During the summer, glacier melt waters from Maligne Lake flood the lake, sometimes overflowing it. In fall and winter the lake disappears, becoming a mudflat with scattered pools of water connected by a stream. But there is no visible channel draining the lake – so where then does the water go?

The answer is, "out the bottom", like a bathtub without a plug. The Maligne River pours into the lake from the south and drains out through sinkholes in the bottom. The water then streams through a cave system formed in the slightly soluble limestone rock, surfacing again in the area of Maligne Canyon 16 kilometers downstream. This is one of the largest known sinking rivers in the Western Hemisphere and may be the largest inaccessible cave system anywhere in the world!

Summer melt water coming into the lake exceeds the capacity of the sinkholes to drain it. Decreased melt water in the late summer and fall means that the lake's sinkholes can drain the lake faster then the Maligne River can fill it. This creates the disappearing lake phenomena. 

Aboriginal peoples called the lake Medicine because of its seemingly magical powers, and the United Nations created the Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site partly because of this unique drainage system.

Source: Parks Canada

Coming Soon: Real Wild Ride with Jasper Motorcycle Tours

Keep that motor running! Head out on the highway!

It takes more than going down to your local video store and renting Easy Rider to become a rebel. And it takes more than riding on a bus to truly experience the Canadian Rockies.

To be a real rebel, you have to get on the road, off the beaten track, and take the road less travelled. And to experience the Rockies, sometimes you have to have to do that on a motorcycle – preferably a Harley Davidson.

But, of course, not everyone has a bike. And not everyone who has a one can bring it to Jasper. So for we Rebels Without A Cycle, there is Jasper Motorcycle Tours.

I could have rented a bike and leather gear and hit the open road looking like James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause or Marlon Brando in The Wild One. OK, maybe more like Dennis Hopper in Flashback!

But since I don't have my licence, I was most fortunate to get Candace for my guide; I sat in the sidecar, feeling like Robin next to her BatGirl.

Coming Soon: This Is Paradise Spirit Island at Maligne Lake

When explorer Mary Schäffer (a.k.a. Mary Schäffer Warren) first reached the end of Maligne Lake, she was awestruck and almost at a loss for words.

When she found the words, she could hardly contain herself:
“There burst upon us... the finest view any of us had ever beheld in the Rockies. Those miles and miles of lake, the unnamed peaks rising above us, one following the other, each more beautiful than the last... We could have looked ahead and aloft and said, 'This is Paradise.' ”

Schäffer – sometimes known as “Jasper's first tourist” – had explored just about everything between Banff and Jasper. She had seen many magnificent mountains, gazed at glorious glaciers and looked at lots of lakes.

But this, it seemed, was beyond compare.

Almost Heaven: Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta

Discovered by explorer Mary Schäffer, celebrated by Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris, explored by local guide Curly Phillips, and made famous by local photographer Harry Rowed, Maligne Lake has been called the most beautiful place in the Canadian Rockies.

It is stunningly beautiful. But the whole area would be better off if there weren't so many people -- or at least if we were committed to minimising the impact we are having on the environment and the endangered wildlife... and I don't mean American tourists.