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Bumper to bumper with cars, campers and tour buses in the summer, the Maligne Lake Road runs east from Jasper for 48km, taking in a number of beautiful but rather busy and overdeveloped sights before reaching the sublime Maligne Lake (pronounced "Ma-leen"), the Rockies' largest glacier-fed lake (and the world's second largest). If you have time to spare, and the transport, you could set aside a day for the trip, white-water raft the Maligne River , or walk one of the trails above Maligne Lake itself. Maligne Tours, 627 Patricia St (tel 852-3370, www.malignelake.com ), books boat tours on the lake (advance booking is highly recommended) and rents out any equipment you may need for canoeing, fishing and so forth (note that rental reservations are also essential in summer). The company also runs a bus , the Maligne Lake Shuttle, to the lake eight times daily ($12 one-way), with drop-offs (if booked) at Maligne Canyon youth hostel ($8) and the northern ($8) and southern ends ($8/$12) of the Skyline Trail, one of the park's three top backpacking trails . Joint tickets are offered for the shuttle and other activities organized by the company, notably the cruises, raft trips and horse rides on and around Maligne Lake. The often rather crowded Maligne Canyon is a mere 11km out of Jasper, with an oversized car park and a tacky cafe/souvenir shop. This heavily sold excursion prom-ises one of the Rockies' most spectacular gorges: in fact the canyon is deep (50m), but almost narrow enough to jump across - many people have tried and most have died in the attempt. In the end the geology is more interesting than the scenery; the violent erosive forces that created the canyon are explained on the main trail loop, an easy twenty-minute amble that can be extended to 45 minutes (few people do this, so the latter part of the trail is often quiet), or even turned into a hike back to Jasper. In winter, licensed guides lead tours (more like crawls) through the frozen canyon - contact Maligne Tours, 626 Connaught Drive, Jasper . Next stop is picture-perfect Medicine Lake , 32km from Jasper, which experiences intriguing fluctuations in level. Its waters have no surface outlet: instead the lake fills and empties through lake-bed sink holes into the world's largest system of limestone caves. They re-emerge some 17km away towards Jasper (and may also feed some of the lakes around Jasper Townsite). When the springs freeze in winter, the lake drains and sometimes disappears altogether, only to be replenished in the spring. The lake's strange behaviour captivated local natives, who believed spirits were responsible, hence the name. Few people spend much time at the lake, preferring to press on to Maligne Lake, so it makes a quietish spot to escape the headlong rush down the road. At the end of the road, 48km from Jasper, is the stunning Maligne Lake , 22km long and 92m deep, and surrounded by snow-covered mountains. The largest lake in the Rockies, its name comes from the French for "wicked", and was coined in 1846 by a Jesuit missionary, Father de Smet, in memory of the difficulty he had crossing the Maligne River downstream. The road peters out at a warden station, three car parks and a restaurant flanked by a picnic area and the start of the short, self-explanatory Lake Trail along the lake's east side to the Schaffer Viewpoint (3.2km loop; begin from Car Park 2). A small waterfront area is equipped with berths for glass-enclosed boats that run ninety-minute narrated cruises on the lake to Spirit Island: the views are sensational (daily hourly on the hour: mid-May to late June 10am-4pm; late June to early Sept 10am-5pm; early Sept to late Sept 10am-3pm; $32). The boats are small, however, and reservations are vital during peak times, especially as tour companies often block-book entire sailings: again, contact Maligne Tours . Riding, fishing, rafting and guided hiking tours are also available, as are fishing tackle, rowing boat and canoe rentals ($10 a day, $45 per day) and sea kayaks ($60 a day). There are no accommodation or camping facilities here, but two backcountry campsites on the lakeshore can be reached by canoe (details from Jasper's information centre).
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