Jasper National Park

Weeks 4 and 5 of our Canadian Rockies road trip were spent at Jasper National Park. We felt like we’d won the campground lottery getting a 2 week reservation in a full hookup site at the recently renovated Whistlers Campground in Jasper. A lot of trees in this area have been wiped out by pine beetles, but the openness of the campground gave us mountain views and a great Starlink signal.

The campground was a 5-minute drive from the cute mountain town also named Jasper. And there were seemingly endless beautiful sites close by that we could visit in the afternoons after work.

Jasper NP is huge and we ventured farther out on the weekends.

The first big hike we did was to Edith Cavell Meadows. On the way up, there is a side trail that takes you to a gorgeous glacier-fed pond. This was the closest we’d been to a glacier before and we could see all the layers of ice.

Next, we visited Jasper’s most iconic lake, Maligne Lake, an hour from the campground. Our hike on the Bald Hills trail got delayed because of a grizzly mom and cub on the trail, about 50 meters ahead of us! We didn’t see the bears but decided to go back to the parking lot with the others who did. The number of hikers in the parking lot started to accumulate, with some braver than us going to check and then coming back very scared. With the blessing of a park ranger, we eventually started again as a group of 8. Michael and I were 10-20 years older than the others, including a couple of ultramarathon runners of all things, and I could barely keep up!

We made it back with no grizzly sightings, and because Maligne Lake was pretty calm that afternoon and we knew we probably wouldn’t have a chance to come back, we rallied and put our kayaks on the water for a little float. The most photographed spot in Jasper is Spirit Island in Maligne Lake, too far to kayak, but the park offers boat tours. We skipped it this year but will probably do that next time we visit.

On our second weekend, we decided to explore Jasper’s portion of the Icefields Parkway. The Columbia Icefield is easily the most popular attraction on the Parkway. There are several paid activities you can do there like riding an ice truck out onto the Athabasca Glacier, the most visited glacier in North America.

This Icefield is the largest in the Rocky Mountains and snow and ice that melt from it flows to the Pacific via the Columbia River. It also goes to the Arctic and Atlantic via other watersheds.

We hiked the Wilcox Pass trail which has been one of our favorite hikes thus far. It was a quick climb up to the alpine region where there were expansive views of the Icefield and the Athabasca glacier.

We talked to a ranger back in the parking lot who said a GPS-collared grizzly had been detected near the trail. She is one that is frequently found near the road and trails because she has been habituated to people. She’s not bothersome, just stays close because it keeps males from killing her cubs.

Before heading back to the campground we walked to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier, it was crazy how much cold wind was coming from it. It is receding about 5 meters per year. Our last stop was to see Sunwapta Falls.

Jasper is the furthest north we are going this year and it’s time to turn around! Next up is a week in the iconic Lake Louise area of Banff National Park.