This way to happiness! / Horse riding near Pyramid Lake, Alberta, 🇨🇦

Back in 2013, while planning the steps of our trip to Alberta, I managed to secretly book up a surprise activity for my wife and I. Well, the surprise was hers, not really mine, duh!
I had examined different activities, and finally settled for a horse ride near Pyramid Lake since we had chosen spend a night in the vicinity.
Somehow I managed to keep the secret until the day arrived, and even until we got close to the Jasper Riding Stables, where she finally saw a signpost and started grinning. On the website, the place and the promenade looked amazing ; we were not disappointed.

_{An appetizer for the rest of the pictures... Also, I think it's the best of the lot and it matches the title I've chosen ;-)}

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I did not take too much risk as she loves horses and is as comfortable on them as on a bike.
This was (and still is) far from being my case though, as it was only my second time ever. For the people worried about horse rinding for the first time, do not worry too much. Generally, they will give you a horse that is nice and slow and would not hurt a fly ; and the pace is typically really slow.
And indeed, mine was an old good boy that just followed our guide, and not so much (what he surely thought was) his clueless jockey!
He was such a good boy in fact that he stopped from time to time for no reason, or rather to look at some trees, then some grass, then some rocks, etc. Very curious guy! But he was doing all the job, with me just patting him between the ears, so I did not mind.
Too bad I don't have a good picture of him to share!

As for the ride, it took us around the lake, into the forest, up on a big hill, and then down and back to the camp.
The lake lies at the foot of Pyramid Mountain, very recognizable by its triangular shape. We did get only slightly closer to the mountain, but we stayed half the time in the forest. It was very peaceful, riding the horse steadily following the narrow paths, avoiding big rocks laying in from of him. And all along, we were hearing sounds of a busy forest, breathing with life. To guide us, we had the sun rays piercing through the branches and providing us with warm light.
Did I already say how blissful it was?

_{Going through the forest. This is actually at the beginning. Later on, the path narrows down a bit, but it never feels dangerous at all. The horses are used to it and have no problem navigating between rocks and branches laying on the ground.}

_{You guessed it, it's Pyramid Mountain. The way it suddenly appears in front of you between branches is pretty cool. I remember just staring at it with my mouth open.}

_{And here is a better view, the mountain and the lake sharing the same name.}

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The best part was obviously when we were on top of the hill, having a panoramic view of the whole valley, the river, and the mountains afar. This is the view you get when looking in the opposite direction of Pyramid Mountain. The main picture portraying this ride was taken from that vantage point.
We stopped there for a few minutes, nobody speaking after our guide told us the names of the river and the mountains. And only reluctantly did we start onto the path down to the forest, because nothing more could top that for the day.

_{The vantage point where you see the whole valley, a few small lakes and a bunch of mountains. This would have been even better as a 360° picture in order to see all of them. Instead, we only see Grisette Mountain, Mount Dromore, and Sirdar Mountain on the left. The road between the mountains goes to Medicine Lake. Also, that's our guide with the cowboy hat!}

_{On the right we have Mount Tekarra, Curator Mountain behind it, and lots of other mountains and mounts behind! The forest was also masking the road, but we were far enough from it to hear no traffic sound, and anyway it's not really that crowded.}

_{Yes, this place is totally on Earth. I know, it's incredible, which is why I was just snapping pictures with my mouth shut. If we ever manage to terraform Mars, I hope for our descendants that it looks like that in a few hundred years. We can dream, right?}

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If you are considering choosing an activity to do in Jasper Park, horse riding is definitely one of the best. Whether you are experienced or not, provided that the weather is good, it is not dangerous at all and absolutely worth it.
Also, not to underestimate: since you are going to stay on the horse for two to three hours (we could have chosen between 1, 2 and 3 hours, we chose the latter), you will get to exercise your hips and thighs, and also trying to sit with your back straight. That's sports, without moving your feet... Kind of! 😅

All in all, a blissful promenade, excellent for the body and the soul!