Among the Canadian AlpsBurpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
History
Among the Canadian Alps
Burpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
A short walk from Pocahontas brings you to a view of one of the most
charming waterfalls in this part of the mountains. The erosion of ages
has here carved out of the face of the cliff a lofty, semi-circular
alcove, and over this background of sombre rock drops a ribbon of
sparkling diamonds. An illustration might give some idea of the scene,
but could not do justice to the peculiar grace and animation of the
fall as seen under a bright sun and swayed gently by a summer's
breeze. There are a number of beautiful waterfalls in Jasper Park,
such as those on Stony River, a tributary of the Athabaska some
distance above Pocahontas, in the Maligne Canyon, of which something
will be said later, on the south side of Pyramid Mountain, and on
Sulphur Creek above the hot springs, but none that cling to the memory
like that of the Punch Bowl.
Largely because the Southern Parks, Rocky Mountains, Yoho and Glacier,
are comparatively well known, the writer has preferred to describe
them impersonally, to picture them as far as possible as seen through
the eyes of other and more competent authorities, men who have learnt
to know them intimately. The case is different with the Northern
Parks, Jasper and Robson. Very few visitors from the outside world
have yet discovered their wonderful possibilities; indeed until very
lately they have been inaccessible except to those possessing the time
and hardihood for a long journey from Edmonton over very rough
trails. Similarly very little has been written about the Northern
Parks. For this reason the writer will venture to describe in a more
personal vein some of the characteristic features of Jasper and
Robson.
Presently the ponies arrived, and we set off on our fourteen-mile ride
to the Miette springs. The trail was a good one, so that we were not
yet in the full enjoyment of the wilderness. That was to come later.
Mile after mile we jogged along, sometimes in the open, sometimes in
the heart of the woods, winding zigzag fashion down a steep hillside,
splashing through a noisy little creek, and zigzagging up the opposite
hill. For a couple of hours Roche Miette towered above us as we swung
around his flank, and then ahead loomed up the great wall of Buttress
Mountain, with Fiddle Creek winding along its base, peacefully enough
now, so peacefully indeed that it is hard to believe the tales we are
told of its resistless fury as it rages down in the spring, filling
this wide channel from bank to bank, and turning its wonderful
canyon--200 feet of sheer black rock--into a roaring hell of waters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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