July 15, 2025
Today the weather was beautiful! We knew this was our chance to go to Jasper National Park and take the Maligne Lake Road. Maligne Lake Road in Jasper is one of Canada’s most scenic roads. with amazing sights like Maligne Canyon, Medicine Lake, and ends at Maligne Lake. Before beginning the drive, we made a quick trip to Hinton for gas since there are no services on the lake road.
Maligne Lake Road is constructed along the glacier-carved valley between the Maligne and Elizabeth mountain ranges. Unfortunately, due to the 2024 forest fire, the drive today was not as beautiful as it probably was before the fire. Over the first few miles we witnessed the devastation left from the fire. So many trees lost! But, even with the burned and fallen trees, there were stunning vistas of towering peaks, turquoise glacier lakes, and the Maligne River.
Note: Our first stop should have been Maligne Canyon, but, the area was still closed from fire destruction.
The first mountain lake we passed was Medicine Lake. All of the tunouts were full of tourists so we didn’t get to stop. More window photography!
Fun fact: Medicine Lake is called the “disappearing lake” among Jasper locals because the water drains out through sinkholes at the bottom, travels through a cave system, and resurfaces downstream in the winter. That is amazing!
The road is also famous for its wildlife sightings, including elk, moose, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, white-tail deer, and grizzly and black bears. We kept our eyes wide open, but, we didn’t spot any wildlife.
The road eventually came to a dead end at Maligne Lake. Maligne Lake is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies and is surrounded by picturesque rugged mountains and forests.
We were shocked to find all the parking lots and street parking were filled. Finally, we found a good spot close to the lake. The view of the lake looked similar to the view of Lake Louise in Banff National Park. Some say that Maligne lake is the prettiest lake in Jasper, and maybe all of the Rockies! I don’t know about that, but, it was very pretty!
The drive to Maligne Lake was very scenic and completely worth the time!
We stopped in Jasper and drove down the main street and into some of the residential area. Again, the devastation is unbelievable. Lots of folks are living in trailers and RV’s in the space that was their home. Many others are in temporary trailers on the edge of town. There were so many structures lost but aslo many were saved.
Before leaving town, we drove to the Jasper Skytram, Canada’s highest and longest tram, with a starting elevation of over 4,000 feet, the trip to the top in the enclosed gondola ends at over7,500 feet. Skytrams are not my thing so we did not ride today!
We enjoyed the remainder of the warm and sunny day back at the RV Park.
Tomorrow- Columbia Ice Field…again
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