Friday 21st August - Sunday 23rd August 2015

So went camping again! This time I dragged Dave along with us! Managed to get to Jasper, set up our tents, yes no van this time, cook dinner before the down pour started! So our Thursday night was pretty quiet!

Friday we all woke up and it was still raining, but it passed soon enough to reveal the mountains were ALL covered in snow! It looked awesome!

Our first stop was the valley of the five lakes, it was a good couple of hours walk. We walked up a small hill before we were next to the first lake and we followed the path along each lake before we had to start walking back up hill to the car.

We headed up to Mount Edith Cavell as the weather was much nicer this afternoon so we decided to go and do the walk!

Mount Edith Cavell is a mountain located in the Athabasca River and Astoria River valleys of Jasper National Park. The mountain was named in 1916 for Edith Cavell, an English nurse executed by the Germans during World War I for having helped Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium to the Netherlands, in violation of German military law. It was previously known as la montagne de la Grande traversée (the Mountain of the Great Crossing) because it stands above Athabasca Pass. A close up view of the north face of Mt. Edith Cavell is visible after a short hike to Cavell Meadows. The trail to the meadows is 3.8 kilometers (2.4 mi) one way, rising 370 metres (1,214 ft) to 2,135 metres (7,005 ft). The hanging Angel Glacier is visible from Cavell Meadows, which spills over a 300 metres (984 ft) cliff on the north face.

So we walked up the trail head and first came to this lake hidden away from the parking lot. There is some permanent glacier just by the lake which has loads of icebergs floating around. It was pretty cool! We could see Angel glacier up the mountain which was pretty cool! Dave said when he was up here last, some ice fell off the glacier and fell into the water which he said was pretty cool!

We carried on our walk up towards the meadows plodding through ankle deep snow! It was actually pretty exciting and different! We were all slipping and sliding everywhere! Got the boys pretty good with a few snow balls, which then came back thrown in my face, quite literally!

We managed to get to the top of our view point, we wanted to do the meadows but with all this snow we decided it wasn't quite a good idea! But the view from where we got to was amazing! It was pretty stunning, I wondered what the meadows looked like without the snow everywhere! Guess I have to find out next summer!

The walk down was more interesting, should have brought some ice skates though or my snowboard! A friendly little chipmunk came right up to me and looked right into my camera lens! It was super awesome!

We finally made it back down to the car and drove back to the campsite, Andrew went for a nap as he was feeling a bit groggy. Dave and I sat around the fire and drank wine! It was a pretty good afternoon and evening!

Sunday we drove up to Maligne lake, it was a gorgeous day! We wanted to go to Spirit island but it was a ridiculously long walk so we just for a short gander along the Schaffer trail along shore line trying to find moose!

Maligne lake is famed for the colour of its water, the surrounding peaks, the three glaciers visible from the lake and Spirit Island, a frequently photographed islet. Maligne Lake is approximately 22.5 km (14.0 mi) long and is 97 m (318 ft) at its deepest point, in the south end of the lake. It averages 35 m (115 ft) in depth.

The lake was well known to First Nations of the area, including Samson Beaver, who knew it as Chaba Imne (Beaver Lake). He drew the first map of the lake and the route to it for Mary Schaffer in 1907. Schaffer was a surveyor who explored much of the Rocky Mountains area. The first European to actually see the lake was Henry McLeod, scouting routes for the CPR in 1875. When he sighted it, he was high in the mountain range and did not actually go into the lake area or identify the route to the lake. June 8, 1908, with the help of Samson Beaver's map, Schaffer, her travelling companion Mary Adams and the guides Billy Warren and Sid Unwin, set out from Lake Louise to reach the lake known by the Stoney people as Chaba Imne (Beaver Lake). When they arrived at the lake, they explored it with the means of a raft, nicknamed the HMS Chaba. Schaffer returned in 1911 to survey the lake. She also named several of the mountains and peaks. Mary Schaeffer's books of the area attracted tourists from all over the US.

We did find a moose, it was a funny looking one, called Dave apparently! Some random said he looked pretty convincing which made us all laugh!

We headed back to camp and had some dinner and drinking some more! I tried to save Dave from a mosquito, however I didn't realise he had the wine in his hand...sooooo....I smacked his hand so hard that his wine went all over his head! It was hilarious! After I apologized a thousand times!

We had a good night, luckily it wasn't as cold as it was the night before thankfully!

We headed back towards Banff after breakfast and packing up our campsites. We had a scary moment in the car...! Andrew didn't realise the overtaking lane was merging and soon we were face to face with a car coming towards us! Dave and I were literally white and Andrew decides to move over into the oncoming traffic hard shoulder rather than move back into the lane. I swear to god we nearly died!

After our scary ride, we finally arrived at the trail head for Wilcox Pass, the first part was super steep and rose extremely fast! It was pretty tiring! We finally made it to the 'top' where the view was amazing. However we continued to head through the meadows. Apparently there was some awesome view further around...unless we missed it...but we walked to what seemed like miles! It was a good walk, until my body started hurting. Finally heading back home exhausted!