Friday, May 21, 2004 Our Brewster Tours bus picks us up at 810am, then goes on to pick up passengers at other Jasper hotels before beginning a four-hour “Discover Jasper” tour, not of the town, but of Jasper National Park. A Parks Canada pass has been included with our Brewster documents.
Unbelievably dramatic peaks surround us as our bus follows the Maligne River south to its source at glacially-fed Maligne Lake. To the east is the front range of the Rockies, characterized by gray limestone mountains with strata tilted at a 45-to-80-degree angle. To our west is main range of the Rockies, with darker rock and multicolor streaks. In the valley between, the Maligne River begins at the north end of Maligne Lake and tumbles down several miles to where it enters Medicine Lake. Medicine Lake “disappears” and the First Nation people feared it. 
Today it is not full, its level about 60 feet below its high-water line, with a shoreline resembling a reservoir. The lake fills every spring with the snow melt, then its level gradually drops until it is nearly dry in the winter. Its only outlet is a series of limestone caves in the lakebed. These were somehow created by the lake’s water after a massive rock slide blocked its original outlet. These caves drain the lake into the next phase of the Maligne River which then must descend several hundred feet to where it joins the Athabasca River. At one point the river has worn a deep, extremely narrow canyon through a layer of softer limestone. One can see the history of the river’s slightly shifting, winding course as it wore its way down through the rock walls.
The driver lets us off to follow the interpretive trail along the top edge of Maligne Canyon, which is so deep and narrow that there are few points where you cannot actually see the water, although one is constantly aware of its prescence by the steady roar of water plunging down the rapids and falls far below. This certainly must be one of the most curious natural drainage systems in the world.
After the tour we have lunch at the Whistler Hotel dining room. The Whistler is in the village, and is conveniently located across the street from the VIA Rail Station. It is a budget hotel, but has most of the amenities that one would need for their Jasper vacation, including a smoky pool room (as in billiards) something not found in just any hotel.
We strolled around the village, which is much smaller and less touristy than Banff. It appears that most tourists don’t spend much time here, unless they are stopping at the rustically elegant and expensive Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge outside of town, but are between train/motorcoach connections on the way to someplace else. We picked up a few supplies for the remainder of our stay in the Canadian Rockies, then strolled the seven blocks back to the Sawridge, where we would be able to enjoy our luxurious suite for nearly 24 hours before our next travel segment, VIA Rail’s Canadian to Vancouver.
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