We started the day with breakfast at a little cafe in town, followed by a walk around some of the streets.  We dropped into the visitor centre before deciding to go for a ride on the Jasper Tramway.  When we got there, it became apparent that everybody had the same idea as there was a long ticket queue that wasn't moving and we were told that it would be quite a while before we would be able to ride.... So we gave up on that idea and decided to drive up to Maligne Lake instead.

Along the way, we stopped at Maligne Canyon where we followed a walking track across a couple of historic bridges which had been built across the canyon.  There was a nice visitor centre with a cafeteria there so decided to stop for lunch before continuing.

Next we stopped briefly at Medicine Lake which is peculiar in that it drains away each winter and refills every summer.

At Maligne Lake, we took a walk along the shore past the boat shed which had various boats for hire.  We noticed a foreign looking family heading out in a rowing dinghy.  The father of the family obviously had no clue about how to row a boat.  He was sitting in the correct position with his back to the bow and his excited family looking at him facing the bow.  Unfortunately, he was using the oars in reverse and trying to use them as paddles.  This meant that the boat was heading blunt stern first and not making much progress!  Despite the calls of several people from the shore who tried to offer instruction, he persisted determinedly.  I'm not sure how far they got but it can't have been far.

Back at the visitors centre, we had a snack and browsed the souvenir store before heading back to Jasper.  Along the way, near Medicine Lake, we suddenly realised that a dark colored animal crossing the road just in front of us was a Black Bear!  We fumbled with great excitement for the cameras. It seemed to take an age to get them working, but we managed to get a few shots as the bear sauntered across the road and then scrambled up a rocky slope.  We were very excited about what we had just seen.

Back in Jasper, we tried the Sky Tram again and were able to get on easily this time.  The Tram took us up Mt Whistler and provided great views of Jasper and its surrounding lakes and forests.  At the top terminal, we were amused by little squirrel who was scurrying around the viewing deck.  We walked up a little further across some rocks and snow before taking the return trip.

We ate a a quaint family restaurant in Jasper called L&W which featured a thick grape vine growing indoors amongst the tables!  We compared notes with another couple eating there.  It turned out they were from Brisbane too and were doing a similar trip in reverse.  They had already been on an Alaskan cruise but they said it had rained the whole time!