Lake Beauvert

Good news! I've finally made it out and about on a few walks around the local area. And here's a bit about the first one, around Lake Beauvert.

A beautiful blue-green glacial lake, just the other side of the Athabasca River from Jasper. The path from the town to the lake runs alongside the river for the majority of its length, though when I walked this route the river was mostly dry. Nevertheless, the path lined with spruce, pine and cedar trees and an abundance of squirrels was delightful. I certainly intend to repeat this walk with the river in full flow, whenever that happens.

There are three primary species of squirrel in the area. The American Red Squirrel, the Colombian Ground Squirrel, and the Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel. I'm fairly certain that I've seen at least one of each, though as one of the traits they seem to share is being difficult to photograph (as well as rather natty white eyeliner) I'm not entirely certain.

This one is definitely a Colombian Ground Squirrel 

And I'm pretty sure that this one's a Red Squirrel

I don't have a picture of the Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, though I'm fairly confident that I've seen one. They look more or less the same as the red squirrels, but with some rather fetching black and white stripes down their sides. Perhaps that has something to do with why they go faster and are harder to photograph.
They are all surprisingly noisy creatures as well, and what I initially thought was unusual birdsong was, in fact, the chattering and squeaking of squirrels. And a very pleasant sound it is too.

There wasn't much else in the way of wildlife on this walk. There were a few Loons and Canada geese out on the lake, but no elk or bears or anything like that.

The remarkable green colour stems from finely ground particles of glacial stone, known as rock flour. These are ground up during the winter when the lakes and rivers are frozen and then released to float in the lakes and reflect the sunlight. Not only does this give a particularly clear and vibrant colour, but also one that shifts and changes with the light and viewing angle. It's also quite different from Great Uncle Jack's ideas about the place.

There are a series of lakes in the area of the proposed Lodge, of a most vibrant and remarkable hue. It is my theory that the colour of these lakes, being an intense green, must derive from a great concentration of dissolved copper salts. This would indicate that there must be a grand deposit of copper ore within these mountains, likely suitable for a grand mineworking. I shall begin work on the design of pitheads and the associated Engines, as soon as I am satisfied that the woods are free of Sasquatch, and the lakes free of Ogopogo.

All in all, it would seem to be just as well that he never got round to implementing many, or indeed any, of his plans for the Rockies, or there might not be much of them left. 

It might sound like a rather obvious thing to say, but the landscape is about as stereotypically Canadian as I could have imagined. While walking here I couldn't help but think of the old folk song 'Land of the Silver Birch'. No moose or beavers that day, but blue lakes and rocky shores aplenty. I hadn't really thought about it till then, but my expectations of what Canada should be like had been quite heavily influenced by that song and 'Asterix in America'. I'm pleased to say that reality does not disappoint. The landscape here is magnificent, and I shall show you more of it over the coming weeks.