Maligne Lake is located at the end of the Maligne Lake Road. It is a large beautiful lake, 14 miles in length, surrounded by a circle of photogenic peaks. The Boat House has been in operation since the 1930’s and rents out canoes and kayaks. The Brewster Tour company offers boat tours that ferry tourists around the lake and offer a closer look at the small Spirit Island. Apparently the boats can get quite busy and reservations are recommended.
The original boat house is still in use
There are a number of trailheads that take off from the Maligne Lake area. We walked the Mary Schaffer trail, a 3.2 km loop with minimal elevation change. It starts from Curly Phillip’s historic boat house and runs along the perimeter of the lake to a scenic viewpoint with a set of interpretive panels. The hike then leaves the shoreline and passes through lichen-rich stands of pine, spruce, and fragrant sub-alpine fir as it loops back around to the parking lot. It passes hummocks and pits left by retreating glaciers.
A tour boat on the Maligne Lake
View from the Mary Schaffer Trail
Mary Schaffer, the trail’s namesake, is credited as being Jasper National Park area’s first tourist and a woman ahead of her time. She arrived in this area in 1908 guided by a map drawn from the memory of a man who was native to the region and had visited the lake only once, 16 years prior, when he was just 16 years old. She and her party were able to find Maligne Lake using his map.
