Chilling out in Jasper

Winter wonderland at Maligne Lake

Copyright 2007 Lydia Hinshaw

JASPER, AB -- We're spending this week in the Canadian Rockies in the "vacation" segment of our commute to Alaska.
Jasper is one of our favorite places, a walkable community in a stunning location far from big-box stores and expressways. Except for warm winters, it has everything, including, alas, residency rules that prevent us from living here.
We've spent so many vacations here it feels like home, and so it's a good place for us to take a rest from our travels. Today we drove to nearby Maligne Lake in a disappointing search for wildlife, and later lazed around the hotel room all afternoon, just glad to be not-driving.
Finally, during dinner, we spotted the first elk of our trip, out the picture windows of the restaurant. Prince Charming got the best elk pictures, so you'll have to check his blog (link at right) to see them.

Earlier in the day, we'd seen perhaps 20 mule deer in various places. These are so common that we didn't bother to photograph any until it was getting late and we were getting desperate.
These two were grazing in the town's busy railyard, not the world's safest pasture.
Fortunately the trains moving through this congested area do so at a crawl.

Among the not-so-wild-life was this fellow waiting for his human alongside a Jasper street. Shortly after I pressed the shutter, he decided he didn't appreciate being harassed by paparazzi. He started barking and thrashing around inside the car, which was our cue to leave before anyone noticed the tantrum we'd provoked.

We finished out our day off with a session in the hotel's hot tub, and a mental workout provided by French-language television.