Maligne Lake

After chatting with our neighbors for a bit, we drove up the thirty-three miles to Maligne Lake, one of the must see places in the Canadian Rockies according to all the brochures.  On the way, we passed Maligne Canyon where we had hiked on Monday.  We also passed Medicine Lake which gets much of its water from Maligne Lake as well as runoff from the snowmelt of the mountains all around.

On the Way to Maligne Lake

Medicine Lake

Medicine Lake

Medicine Lake has no visible outlets yet the water level varies tremendously throughout the year.  They say it is like a leaky bath tub with water flowing down through caves, sinkholes and underground rivers and at least some reaching the Maligne River that flows through the canyon.  The water line is at least thirty to forty feet lower than any vegetation showing that the lake is usually or often higher.  

We arrived at Maligne Lake and drove down the steep boat launch road to take our kayaks off.  There was another couple there blowing up kayaks.  We later saw them paddling with their feet up on the decks and no life preservers to be seen.  The water temperature is in the forties!  We also saw a guy with no shirt and no PFD.  Some people just have a death wish. We had on Hydroskin, dry tops and extra layers as well as our PFDs.

Launch Site

From Launch

From Launch

Dock With Restaurant and Boat Rentals in Background

The lake was beautiful and when calm enough, we could see quite far down into it  It was windier than we would have liked but not really difficult paddling  We followed the shoreline for the most part.  There are tour boats that travel back and forth every fifteen minutes or so and they have huge wakes so it was better and more pleasant to stay as far away from them as we could.  The shoreline varied from dense forest to forest fire burned acres with large rock formations sticking out of the ground.  There were several giant erratics sticking out of the water, all with at least one tree growing on it.  The one furthest into the lake had a cave in the side and, in honor of Paul and the crevice monster, we each had our pictures taken in the cave.

One beautiful cove was closed due to loon nesting.  There is an island in the lake that is one of the most photographed places in Canada.  We paddled around a fairly big island but it wasn't spectacular so we guess we didn't make it far enough.  We had paddled about four miles and the wind was coming up and would be in our faces on the return trip so didn't go any further.  It was a great paddle as was the scenery on the way back down the winding mountain road.  We were back in time for showers and happy hour.