The next morning, Mary and I slept in, and it was wonderful.  I especially needed that extra sleep, considering how poorly I had slept at the Laughing Falls campground the night before.  John agreed that this was the morning for us to sleep in and promised not to wake me up if he decided to get up early.

John did get up early that morning; he was up at 5:00 a.m. and chose to go for a drive, so that he wouldn't wake us up.  His drive took him to Mount Robson Provincial Park, just on the other side of the Jasper National Park border, in British Columbia.  Along the way, he saw a giant elk on the side of the highway; he also saw Canadian geese - lots of Canadian geese.  The highlight of his drive, though, was seeing Mount Robson.  At an elevation of over 13,000 feet, Mount Robson is the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies.  According to our guide books, it is very rare to see Mount Robson without cloud cover over the peaks; that morning, John was able to catch one of those rare, clear moments.

John returned to Jasper around 8:00 a.m.; by that time, Mary and I had been up for an hour, and we were just getting dressed.  As soon as we were ready, we all set off on our day's adventure.

Our plan for the day was to take it easy - nothing strenuous, just sightseeing and exploring.  Of course, our definition of "nothing strenuous" is quite different from other people's.  "Nothing strenuous", by our definition, could mean that we might only do a one-mile, flat hike, rather than spend a lazy day doing nothing.  Not that there isn't anything wrong with that; it's just not how we roll.

The day started out with a short, scenic drive to Pyramid and Patricia Lakes, the turnoff for which was less than a mile from our cabin at Bear Hill Lodge.  Both of these lakes were small and peaceful at that early hour in the morning; unfortunately, they wouldn't stay that way for long, because the first tour bus was on its way in, just as we were making our way out of the area.

After that, we took a drive down Maligne Lake Road, which was located on the outskirts of the town of Jasper.  Once again, we followed along in our borrowed copy of Parkways of the Canadian Rockies and found many points of interest along the way, such as the Athabasca River overlook, the Maligne Canyon Trailhead and Hostel, and the Beaver Lake Trailhead.  We also drove through the Jasper Park Lodge, one of the three five-star Canadian Rockies resorts, run by the Fairmont.  This resort had a whole different look than the other two - Banff Springs and Lake Louise; Jasper Park Lodge had the look of an old, rustic hunting lodge.  I was curious to see what it looked like on the inside, but we decided not to stop there, since we still had a lot of exploring to do yet.

During our drive on Maligne Lake Road, we encountered an animal jam; there were several cars stopped in the middle of the road to view a gigantic caribou, feeding in the grass.  This was our first caribou sighting, and we weren't disappointed.  The caribou was huge, with one of the biggest racks we had ever seen on an animal. We managed to get some great pictures of him before moving on.

At the end of Maligne Lake Road is Maligne Lake, the longest and deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies.  As we drove by the lake, we saw that there were a number of tour buses already parked there, meaning that the lake was going to be quite crowded. Knowing that, we weren't sure at first whether or not we even wanted to stop there; but we did anyway, because we at least wanted to see the lake and take a few pictures.

After parking the car, John and Mary and I walked across the parking lot and down to the trail by the lake and found ourselves standing next to the boat rental shack.  Out of curiosity, we looked at the price schedule over the doorway and discovered that it was only $35 Canadian to rent a canoe for an hour. 

"Ooh, that sounds like fun!" I said.  "We should do that!"

John, on the other hand, was apprehensive.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to rent a canoe that morning; he just wasn't feeling very motivated.  Eventually, he relented, and while Mary and I waited in line at the rental counter, John returned to the car to grab the sunscreen.  (After all, we know better than to go canoeing without it!) 

Once we had all signed the waivers and paid for our canoe rental, the sales representative gave us lifejackets then took us outside to our boat.  She helped us get on board; then, once she had untied the canoe from the dock, we paddled away, out onto the open lake.

It was a very peaceful morning out on Maligne Lake - a perfect day for paddling.  There were lots of kayakers and canoeists out on the water, as well as a number of fishermen in small fishing boats.  The only time we had to worry about the wake was when one of the Spirit Island cruise boats left the dock and kicked up the engines earlier than expected.  We got hit by a big wake that rocked us hard and sent an inch of water into the boat.  It scared us at first; after that, we laughed about it. 

We paddled about two miles out onto the lake, with the goal of making it to one of the far peninsulas - John was hoping that we could see Spirit Island from there.  It turned out to be a lofty goal, though; after a half an hour of paddling, we had only made it three-quarters of the way there.  We knew that we would never make it back in time if we kept going, so we made that our turn-around spot.  We also made that our lunch spot; we let the canoe drift for five minutes while we ate the sandwiches that we had brought along with us.  Then, we put our paddles back in the water and started back towards the rental shack.

As we made our way back to the rental shack, we got quite the workout; we had to paddle hard to ensure that we weren't late getting the boat back to the dock.  But that didn't meant that we couldn't enjoy the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.  In all of our canoeing expeditions, this one had to be the most scenic.  It's not every day that one can paddle on a glacial lake, surrounded by snow-capped mountains!  Everywhere we looked, we were amazed by the stunning beauty all around us.

And then, as we approached the dock, something even more amazing happened.  A flock of Canadian Geese took off from the water, their wings flapping furiously against the surface; and just as they were airborne, they buzzed right by us!  They were so close that we could hear the flapping of their wings.  It happened so fast that we could only get a picture of them from behind, as they were flying away, just feet above the lake.  But it didn't matter; it was an experience that we would never forget.

We arrived at the rental shack with five minutes to spare, so we paddled leisurely towards the dock and took pictures of the ducks out on the water.  When we finally paddled up to the dock, we were right on time. 

And John, who had been reluctant to go canoeing that morning, was grinning ear to ear.  He had enjoyed every minute of it and was now glad that I had suggested it.  As a treat, he bought us all an ice cream bar at the rental shack; and we ate them as we walked back to the car.

"You know what I think?" John said as we drove away from Maligne Lake that afternoon.  "I think it's Beer:Thirty!"

"Daddy," Mary chimed in, "is it Juice Box:Thirty, too?"  Spoken like a true Verley!

The rest of the afternoon, we really did take it easy...really!  Since we had the time and didn't have anywhere else to be, we decided to take a drive out to Miette Hot Springs, so that we could find the trailhead for our next backpacking trip.  In just three days, we would be embarking on a three-day, two-night trek to the Fiddle River, by way of Utopia Pass, and we would be staying two nights at the Utopia Creek Backcountry Campground, where we would have total solitude.  We thought it would be a wise idea to plan out our route ahead of time, in order to gauge how long it would take to get there, as well as what the parking situation was like at the trailhead.

To get to Miette Hot Springs, we took the Yellowhead Highway (Canada 16) east from Jasper, for about forty miles.  Along the way, we paralleled the Athabasca River, as it twisted its way through the valley.  About halfway there, we passed by Jasper and Talbot Lakes, which are separated only by the highway - Jasper Lake lies north of the highway, Talbot to the south.  We were surprised to see how low Jasper Lake was; there were people wading, calf-deep, out on the lake, about a hundred feet from the shore.  We considered stopping for a swim, too, but reconsidered when we saw how crowded it was there.

The turnoff for Miette Hot Springs Road is located at the Pocahontas Campground, about seven kilometers from the eastern Jasper Park gate.  Although it was clearly marked, we still drove right by it.  John wasn't paying attention; he was distracted by a pair of backpackers, hitchhiking along the side of the highway.  So, he had to find a pullout, flip a U-turn, and go back, with Mary and me picking on him the whole time.

The road to Miette Hot Springs was only eleven miles long, and there weren't many points of interest along the way.  We completely missed Punchbowl Falls, located just off to the right just over a kilometer from the Yellowhead Highway junction; we drove right past it before we even realized it was there.  We did stop at the Fiddle River Viewpoint, about halfway up the road; but we didn't stay there very long.  A few minutes after we parked, we were joined by several vehicles in a caravan; they all parked and started playing very loud rap music.  So much for peace and quiet in the Canadian Rockies!

At the end of the road was Miette Hot Springs, a small resort tucked away in the mountains.  The resort included cabin rentals, a picnic area, a small café, and, of course, the pools, fed by the hot springs.  From the road, we could see that the pools were packed with swimmers, looking for some relief from the heat wave that was lingering over Alberta.  It looked inviting; too bad we were there without our swimsuits.  John could see that we wanted to go, so he suggested that we make it a point to go to the hot springs immediately following our backpacking trip, as a way of relaxing our sore muscles.  (Of course, we were certain that we would be asked to leave after leaving a ring of dirt around the pool; we were going to be dirty after three days in the backcountry...)

We found the trailhead, just a few hundred feet from the pool parking lot.  At the trailhead, there was a sign, indicating that it was only three kilometers to Utopia Pass and 6.1 kilometers to Utopia Creek.  When John had done his research on our hike, he had read that we would be hiking five long, difficult miles, not 3.6.  Indeed, this was good news!  After seeing this, he went back to his sources and discovered that he had been mistaken.  True, the hike was going to be difficult - that was a given - but the elevation change and the mileage was much less than he had been led to believe.  Mary and I were very relieved to hear that!

After leaving the trailhead, we started the long drive back to Jasper.  Along the way, we made it a point to stop at Punchbowl Falls, since we had missed it on the way there.  The picture of the falls, as depicted in our guidebook, was very beautiful; however, it was impossible to get that particular view of the falls from the overlooks.  All of the good viewpoints were completely blocked off; it was the one place where we walked away, disappointed that we couldn't get a good picture.

During the drive back to Jasper, we encountered several animal jams along the Yellowhead Highway, and all of them were due to big horn sheep along the side of the road.  There were probably fifteen or twenty of them - even babies - grazing in the grass on the embankment.  These were the types of traffic delays that we enjoyed!

Once back in Jasper, we decided to stop at the Jasper Park Information Center, located in the center of town. John indicated that he had to check in with the warden to give a license plate number for our rental car, as that was required for our backcountry permit.  He also wanted to check on trail conditions, to make sure that nothing had changed since he had called for permits.  When we arrived at the Visitor's Center, we discovered that the line at the information counter was very long.  The warden seemed determined to get through the line as quickly as possible; she was pleasant enough, but we definitely got the impression that she wasn't going to waste time by looking up our permits to input our license plate number.  Instead, she wrote it down and said that she would do it later.  We just had to take her word for it.

While we were at the Visitor's Center, we also did a little souvenir shopping.  We also looked for a geocache that was supposed to be nearby - or, at least that was where the GPS coordinates put us.  We later learned that it was a multi-stage cache (or a multi-cache), so it wasn't located at those coordinates after all.  In the meantime, it sure led us on a wild goose chase!

Around 3:00 in the afternoon, we returned to the Bear Hill Lodge, where we remained for the rest of the day.  John and Mary decided to take a nap; while they slept, I went to the laundry room - a mere fifty feet from our cabin - and washed our dirty clothes.  We had reached the halfway point of our vacation, meaning that we had run out of clean clothes; now, we would have another week's worth of clothes to wear. 

By the time I was finished with the laundry, John was cooking dinner.  He served up pork chops, cooked on the stove and seasoned with our backcountry spice wheel; rice; and green beans - all served with the nice bottle of wine that I had picked up at the Jasper Liquor Store.  We ate our dinner outside, at the picnic table, just as a nice, cool breeze picked up and the skies clouded over, threatening rain.  A light drizzle began to fall soon after dinner, which helped cool the air down a bit; that was a welcome relief from the heat.

That evening, after Mary was asleep, John and I put on our swimsuits and spent some time soaking in the hot tub.  It was nice to have the chance to spend some alone-time together - especially since that it hard to do on a family vacation, not without having to spend a pretty penny for babysitting services.  We stayed there until 10:00, when we decided to turn in for the night.  Another day of adventure awaited us in the morning, and we needed to rest up for it.

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