Favorite Canadian Vacation Spots: Maligne Lake

No trip to the Canadian Rockies would be complete without a stop in Jasper National Park. High in the mountains, accessible only by a narrow, twisting highway, nestles one of the crown jewels of the Rockies - Maligne Lake. Rich in history, and unsurpassed for beautiful vistas, one end of this spring-fed, alpine lake is completely enclosed by the Queen Elizabeth Mountains, while the other flows out into the fast-running and treacherous Maligne River.

Many of these spring-fed lakes offer wonderful swimming, once they warm in the summer sun. Maligne Lake, however, has a summer temperature of 6 or 7 degrees, making any prolonged exposure in its waters a one-way trip to hypothermia. It does offer excellent vistas for canoeing enthusiasts, and the trip up the lake and back provides a great workout for the avid "paddler". To protect the delicate, alpine environment, absolutely no motor boats except for the tour launches are allowed on the lake.

In 1875, one of the first white men to record visiting Chabe Imne, or Beaver Lake, as it was then known to the local First Nations people, Henry MacLeod was searching for possible routes for the proposed transcanadian railway. Once he reached the head of the lake, and discovered no viable pass, or route out from the lake's upper end, he barely mentioned it in his journal, recording only that his feet were sore, and there was nothing there of interest to the survey.

it was not until 1908 that the lake was first officially mapped and recorded, when geographer Mary Schäffer and her party reached Chabe Imne, after failing to reach the lake ahead of winter snows the year before. Using a map sketched by Stoney Indian, Samson Beaver, the Pennsylvanian Quaker's party had been on the verge of giving up a second time, when one of her party offered to climb one more mountain, and gained their first sight of the lake.

Mary Schäffer made a life for herself after her husband's death by continuing his work as an explorer-geographer. It is largely due to her mapping of the region that we are now able to enjoy this amazing area, and at a level of comfort that Mary's expedition would have probably deemed excessively pampering.

The Maligne River, which flows out of the lake is deceptively shallow in spots, but still a fierce rush of water, and well-known destination for white water rafting enthusiasts.The stretch of river from its outflow at Maligne Lake, down to mile 22, or kilometer 41, offers a world-class ride.

The story goes that it was named by one of the first Catholic priests to travel to the area. Though advised against it by his native guide, the French father insisted on heading into the river, insisting that the Lord would protect him. His horse was swept out from under him, but the father managed to regain the shore, afterward, referring to the river as maligne, pronounced /məˈlen/ [muh-leen], meaning evil or wicked.

The name has since come into common usage for the river, the canyon through which it flows, and the lake from which it comes. When Mary Shaffer was accorded the honor of officially naming the lake, she dubbed it Maligne Lake, after the river.

A leisurely walk from the Jasper Tea House will bring you to the 5th Bridge, with spectacular views of the Maligne River Canyon, the deepest canyon (50m) in Jasper National Park.

About 41 kilometers downstream from Maligne Lake, "Rose Marie's Rock", a tall, tree-topped boulder, juts up out of the water, looking for all the world like a chunk of the canyon cut off from the rest of its side of the river, and stranded in the middle of the racing waters. This boulder was featured in the 1953 re-make of Rose Marie, starring Howard Keel and Ann Blyth.

Medicine Lake, which is part of the same watershed, has provided something of a mystery over the years. In early Summer, the lake is full to overflowing with snow-melt, and runoff from the glaciers carried down by the Maligne River, yet as the seasons progress, the water levels continue to drop, though there is no visible outflow. By Fall, the lake is a dried up marsh, and remains bereft of water until the snows melt again the following year.

The First Nations people of the area named it Medicine Lake, and said the vanishing water was the work of the spirits. We now know that there is a vast and efficient system of sinkholes and underground drainage tunnels. The water streams through the cave system formed in the slightly soluble limestone rock, surfacing again in the Maligne Canyon some 16 kilometers downstream. This is one of the largest known sinking rivers in the Western Hemisphere and may be the world's largest inaccessible cave system.

Summer runoff flowing into the lake exceeds the capacity of the sinkholes to drain the water. In the late summer and fall, however, the runoff decreases, allowing the lake's sinkholes to drain the lake - faster then the Maligne River can fill it, creating the disappearing lake.

© 2010, Text by Elle Fredine, All rights reserved - All photographs, except where noted, are © Elle Fredine