Pyramid Lake

"Cynthia,

Won't you take me to

Pyramid Lake with you"

On our last full day in Jasper, we were looking for a good scenic hike in the morning as a prelude to what was surely going to be Adele's highlight of the week, a trip to the Miette Hot Springs in the afternoon.  There were several good reasons to choose Pyramid Lake besides the nostalgia of a Blue Rodeo lyric, it's nearby to the Jasper township, has an extensive set of trails that would allow a choice of distances and sits underneath the utterly breathtaking and multi-coloured magnificence of Pyramid Mountain.

The day was nice, but not spectacular.  Some low cloud hung around the mountain tops, but where one might have thought that would detract from the view, it seemed to add a little extra something.  We sort of walked around the lake, not having chosen a path or destination, and ended up at the island that juts out into the lake.  It was quite clear why this particular spot had been and still was so popular.  There were great views over the lake to the mountains in the distance, including snow covered Edith Cavell, and my personal favourite - Unnamed.  Lakeside the clear waters reflected the little sun that we had, and large dragonflies took the time to land on your shoulder for a rest.  We took the obligatory family photo and quickly moved on lest we spend the whole day on the tiny island.

We finally chose a path to complete our journey and after crossing a little bridge we branched off into a more forested section.  We were surrounded by trees and had the path all to ourselves - or so we thought.  We couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred metres from the branch point when Fiona remarked on some sounds that seemed to be coming from the trees.  Our little convoy stopped for a few seconds and after scanning the trees I quickly and smartly pointed up to the large tree just in front of us.

"It's a porcupine, about 30 feet up", I said.  "Look, you can see his tail hanging down below that branch ..."

I'm not quite sure if it was intended, but Linda's response was whip-smart - "Where's the porcupine?  Is it next to the bear?"

At the word bear, I believe about half of our convoy turned and hightailed it back down the path.  The rest of us stopped to take a look and snap a photo.  He seemed a little sad, like we disturbed him.  He wasn't overly large, perhaps a couple of years old and he followed our conversation, moving his head to look at whomever was talking.  We could have walked directly under him and continued on, but at the time, not knowing if was still a cub with an over-protective mother around, it was probably a good decision to turn around.  All-in-all a really cool experience.  If I told you it was the equivalent of finding some cool mushrooms and slime molds later on in the walk, you would know I was lying.

We had lunch at the Pyramid Lake Resort.  We got a long table and the panko crusted chicken tenders were a hit with most people.  My elk, bison and beef sliders also went down quite well.

It was a great morning in all respects for me.  I think I got to walk and talk with everyone, I saw a bear close-up and the mountains looked spectacular.