today in the morning we started with a breakfast in a cafe in jasper, and by this and a little window shopping our suspicion that this little town really is expensive was more than confirmed. but then again, this is not really surprising for a tourist town. the breakfast though was awesome, delicious, and worth every pence - i had pancakes with fruit, maple syrup and whipped cream. i would call that a good start to the day. and it was also necessary for we started with a several kilometre long hike, the maligne canyon[001-080] hike, that runs alongside of the maligne river. several bridges cross the canyon, and each provides a good look down into the canyons that have been carved into the rock by the water over thousands of years. sometimes the glacier fed water, has also eroded pools[016-018,026,028,035,] into the rock. venturing of the trail, one can even get right down to the river bed, which we did several times (though it actually is not advised to so) and enjoyed the crystal clear turquoise water from close up. little waterfalls can also be found along the trail, and underground springs[048,059], feeding the river with more water. the way back we choose a different path, leading more up the mountain[070-075], and soon one could not hear the river anymore. our next stop was for medicine lake[085-136], which actually is not a lake in the usual sense. it is actually all sinkholes and caves in the ground, overflowing with melt waters. so during late summer there is a lake, while in winter, there is only a river. it also is considered the biggest underground (and inaccessible) cave system in the world. besides that interesting fact, we also found interesting little creatures running around between the rocks. they look like hamsters, but actually are rabbits, although they don't look like that. they are called pika[090,094-099,104-108], and they are super cute, and make cute warning sounds, and run around with tufts of grass in their mouth, and they are extremely fast. we also believe, they might somehow be related with pikachu, the electro pokemon. then it was time for the next lake, called maligne lake[137-185], which is more than 20 kilometres long, so a trip around the lake was beyond question. instead we did the 3.2km long mary schaeffer loop trail, which covers only a small part of the lake in the north west. here we noticed for the first time that autumn seems to be draining the green colours from the deciduous trees and paints them in brownish, reddish, and yellowish colours. we also thought how beautiful it must be here in late autumn, with all the different colours of the trees. hmmmm.... it definitely might be worth coming back here again to see that. after this little hike we had a short coffee break with the very friendly mounty bear[164], and continued our journey through the jasper national park to a lake where there were less tourists as there were at lake maligne, the tourist magnet. and so we landed at lake annette[193-217]. here, there were no people, no wind, the wonderful light from sun set. perfect conditions for nice photos. and so we did some with the beautiful reflections of the surrounding mountains. that was really awesome, and we enjoyed that very much. then suddenly there's smoke[203-204] around everywhere, and at first we were afraid it might be a wildfire, but then it turned out people were using the public huts nearby, which also have a built-in stove to keep them warm and cooking. soon we came to an open rest area where a couple was feeding a fluffy tiny squirrel[218-232]. this guy was stuffing tons of food into his stash in the trees. we also added some grams to that. aaaaaaaw, so cute. next... tadaaaa, surprise, another lake, namely lake edith[233-249]. but to be fair, those two lakes are right next to each other, with a pathway, only a few metres wide dividing them. and then there is also the ochre lake[233-234], which is actually a huge quicksand area, surrounded by a fence. but since there was a little puddle we guess it's called a lake. right next to the public fireplace hut mentioned earlier, there's also a small playground for children, and there i spotted the biggest raven i have ever seen. the bird was also pretty shy, so he flew away when i wanted to get closer to take a picture. but that one was really really big. actually all the ravens here are bigger than the crows and ravens at home - such lovely creatures. then we called it a day, our lake quota for today definitely fulfilled. also it got late, so we wanted to get home and rest. just before returning to jasper town we spotted a group of caribous[250-255] grazing along the road. yay, wildlife. track for day 15.