It was much higher and more challenging than we initially thought.
The Athabasca river is a light turquoise colour because of all the rock flour created by the glacier that feeds the river. As we got higher Don suggested that we didn’t get too close to the edge! Many of the Lodge Pine trees are dead. An Asian beetle arriving in British Columbia in some wood has devastated the forests. Many of the pines were hundreds of years old and the scientists have not yet worked out what to do.
Luckily once we reached the top of our climb the path back down was longer and a more gentle descent.
We were able to see the wild flowers. This is the native rose the emblem of Alberta and it has a beautiful perfume.
This is a lovely daisy and below a firey red flower native to here.
This was the only fungi we saw.
This is the view back up the cliff we looked down earlier. The moss has covered the rocks almost completely.
We were tired after our long walk so returned home to have lunch. Late in the afternoon we caught a free bus ride out to Maligne Canyon. It was an amazing gorge that the Maligne river has cut though the rock. There are a number of bridges along it’s path where you can take spectacular photos.
A large volume of water comes crashing down spinning rocks to make potholes and carving its way through the rock.
At times it was nearly 70 metres below the level of the land.
Black-headed swifts nest in the rock cavities above the river.
Apparently the waterfall freezes over in winter and this large patch of ice was still there. You would think that it would have melted by now as the temperature was 23c.
There are 6 bridges and we walked down to the fourth bridge before walking back up to have dinner at the restaurant there.
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