Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: Jasper National Park takes our breath away!

Today we have one full day to explore Jasper National Park – and we were going to make the most of it. Or as our family is starting to joke, ‘get the dollar out the day’. I woke up feeling a lot better – thank goodness! I’d been looking forward to Jasper so much – I’d heard there is a much better chance of seeing wildlife than in Banff.

We all could not believe it – our habit of sleeping until 9-10am continues! Out of bed – late again – and not on the road until 11:30am!

The forecast was for rain - however as we left the bungalow the sun started to come out - great timing! Our first stop – Maligne Lake. We had ‘Gypsy’ with us for the trip and learnt so much about the area as we were driving along. Terry and I couldn’t stop commenting on how spectacular the scenery is. The photos do come anywhere close to what we were seeing – you really have to see it to believe it.

We arrive at Maligne Lake, ‘Does anyone want to go on the boat cruise?’ I ask – ‘NO’ said the three boys in unison. Ok, then looked like I was out voted – let’s go on a walk along the lake then. It was freezing and as we were walking along it began to snow! We could hear the marmots in the trees calling to each other to let the next marmot know people were coming. We saw a sign warning of moose in the area however we didn’t run into any – I am really keen to tick a moose off my list!

We then drove 100km to Miette Springs (was thinking of you Renee and Miette!) It was so, so cold outside however I had come so far – I was not going to miss a chance to swim in a hot spring. The air was 5 degrees and the water was 40 degrees – I could not convince Terry to come in however the boys and I stayed in around 45 minutes and would have liked to have stayed longer although we needed to continue on to Hinton after the springs.

Feeling really refreshed, we drove another 60kms north to Hinton for what would become the highlight of our day. We were going to the Beaver boardwalk and timing would have us arriving in the late afternoon – the prefect time to spot a beaver. When the kids were little we had watched a really good movie/documentary about a beaver called ‘White Tuft’. The kids knew a lot about beavers and we really wanted to see one. We arrived at the boardwalk and faced a sign warning of the dangers around the boardwalk – yikes! I don’t think I will ever get used to the potential animal threats around!

I had read – yes, on tripadvisor – the best part of the 3km boardwalk to spot beavers was actually the closest part to the carpark. We quickly spotted this spot and could see where the beavers had dammed up the water. We sat quietly, quietly, oh so quietly – I was thinking how good was that the kids were a bit older and would sit so quiet and so patiently – and guess what? We were rewarded with two beavers. All of us were so excited! The first beaver that came out of his lodge swam over to a big log. We watched as he swam the log back to his lodge and placed it under the water. Then his mate swam past us – and then the other beaver followed. We excitedly followed down the boardwalk – and then they were gone! We waited and waited – nothing more. We were guessing they went off to eat somewhere? We started walking around the boardwalk trying to find them but we then had to walk through woods – and we weren’t real keen on all the cougar and bear business. We looped back around and spotted one more beaver back the lodge – but then it disappeared too. We spoke to other tourists that had been there hours and had not seen one. We were the lucky ones once again! Although i could have sat there all night, it was 7pm as we had to make the long drive back to Jasper. We have driven a lot over the past few days however the scenery and wildlife is so worth it - the kids have been fantastic in the car as well!