We haven’t travelled much – other than where we’ve had to travel for work – since arriving in Canada more than a year ago. It’s understandable. We’ve had to move houses (three times), get settled into our new house and CF needed to get settled in her new job. After a year of extremely hard work, she needed to take some time off though. So we booked three nights in the town of Jasper.
For those of you not familiar with it, Jasper National Park is one of four adjacent national parks – combined with three British Columbian provincial parks – within the Canadian Rockies that was declared a UNESCO world heritage site. Jasper National Park is the largest of the four national parks, at around 11,000km2 (about 60% the size of Kruger National Park). Jasper (the town) is joined to it’s slightly more famous neighbour, Banff (the town) via the Icefields Parkway and Highway 1.
Three nights is obviously not enough time to cover 11,000km2 worth of potential hiking, backpacking, camping, exploring, or other various activities. Still, we did go on a bunch of hikes, including the incredible Maligne Canyon, around Maligne Lake, Whistlers Peak and around Pyramid Lake and Pyramid Island. My watch says I averaged around 23,000 steps (or 19km) a day hiking. We also slightly cheated on Whistlers Peak, by taking the SkyTram up the mountain, and then hiking to the peak. A short 2km hike laterally, but 300m vertically, at an altitude of 2,464m. We’re definitely not used to the high altitudes any more!
Jasper is a beautiful little town. It’s entirely walkable, maybe 3km end-to-end and 500m wide. It’s a town based primarily around tourism and the railway – a train goes through it every 15 minutes or so. There’s no lack of excellent restaurants and bars (shoutout to Jasper Brewing Company and their Crisp Pils), although being a tourist town, expect to pay tourist rates. There’s a planetarium, one or two nightclubs, spas, and one of the best golf courses in Canada. It also had a really beautiful little community garden between the main street and the train tracks.
The surroundings are just… breathtaking. Everywhere you look there’s another astonishing view. I’m pretty sure we spent the three days just gawping everywhere we went. We lucked out on the weather, the days were sunny, clear and warm with the clouds and rain settling in in the afternoons.
It’s genuinely impossible to explain the beauty of the Rockies. Instead I’m going to leave you with a selection of the 150+ photos and videos I took. We can’t wait to go back and explore Jasper a bit more.
The view from First Bridge, in Maligne Canyon. 
A closer view of the famous chockstone in the canyon above First Bridge, in Maligne Canyon. 
Fan Falls, about 1/2km downstream of Fourth Bridge in Maligne Canyon. 
A panorama of one of the more photogenic (this is all relative) of the river in Maligne Canyon. 
Whistlers Peak in background, between Fourth and Fifth Bridge in Maligne Canyon. 
Looking upstream from Fifth Bridge in Maligne Canyon. 
The view down the Athabasca River, alongside the Wildflower Loop north of Sixth Bridge in Maligne Canyon. 
An Elk Bull with his antlers still covered in velvet. The antlers grow and fall off every year. 
The Colin Range of mountains, bordering Medicine Lake. 
Pyramid Peak, as seen from the northern tip of Pyramid Island. 
A panorama of the view from the false summit of Whistler’s Peak, looking towards Marmot and Terminal mountains. 
Pyramid Peak, as seen halfway between the false summit and summit of Whistlers Peak. 
Looking west from the summit, directly at Mount Robson, the tallest peak in the Rockies (3,954m). 
The snow hangs around a bit on the mountain tops – that signpost is normally around 1.4m off the ground. 
A wider view of Jasper, the Colin Mountains, Whistlers and Wapiti Camp Grounds and the Fairmont Jasper. 
The SkyTram ascends rather quickly… 
Looking southeast from the head of Maligne Lake. Spirit Lake isn’t visible in this picture, but you can take a boat cruise to view it. 
The view from Maligne Lake Road bridge southeast down Maligne Lake. The evening weather was moving in around 5:30pm. 
Yes, the rivers and lakes really are *that* colour. 
The water really is absurdly clear. Moose Lake, directly south of Maligne Lake Rd bridge. 
The view southeast of Moose Lake. I think it’s Maligne Mountain in the background. 
A black bear and her very small cub, approximately 150m from us on Maligne Lake road. Naturally we didn’t get any closer…