Jasper

Panoramic view from the top of Bald Hills, near Maligne Lake

Us at the top of Sulphur Peak, near Miette Hot Springs

Athabasca River with its characteristic serpentine twists near Mt. Kerkeslin

Jasper NP is like a smaller version of Banff.  The town itself is smaller, there are fewer things to do, and there are less people.  Even over Labor Day, when we were in town, the place wasn’t exactly packed.  And one other thing we noticed: it’s frigging freezing. No wonder – it’s at 53 degrees North latitude. But even so, nightly near-freezing temperatures in late August/early September? Good thing we got that zero-degree double-occupancy sleeping bag.

It is, however, spectacular.  The views are similar to Banff, with glaciated peaks and mountain lakes all around.  And the town itself is nice, with a good array of shops, bakeries, coffee houses, and restaurants.

Our time in the park was spent in a similar fashion to Banff, with as much hiking as possible:

Day 1: rainy and cold. We hung out at a local bakery/coffee shop in the morning, and then drove to check out some in-town sites – Patricia Lake, Pyramid Lake, Edith Lake, and Annette Lake. Each has a small network of walking paths near and around it, so we tried to find the gaps in the rain and do a bit of wandering.

Day 2: Maligne Lake area.  There was a bear advisory on the route we originally chose (Opal Hills), so we hiked up the other side of the meadow, to a ridge in the Bald Hills.  And boy are we glad we did!  Maligne Lake has completely different sights on either side of it – gorgeous glaciated peaks on one side, and far more eroded, smoother peaks on the other.  Our hike ended up taking us to the top of the eroded side, so we got spectacular views of the picturesque side across the valley.  The only issue was that we saw a large pile of fresh grizzly bear scat at the bottom of the trail, which made for a somewhat nerve-racking time until we reached the tree line.  After the hike, we drove over to an area known for mountain goats – the Kerkeslin Goat Lick.  We spotted a number of them, impossibly high on the mountainside, and then saw one close up wandering around near the road!

Day 3: Miette Hot Springs area.  This place has a pool that is fed by hot springs water and was thus jammed with people, so we avoided that part of the area.  Instead, we did a short but difficult hike up the Sulphur Skyline trail to Sulphur Peak, which offered great 360 degree panoramic views of the surrounding mountains.  We were feeling pretty good, so we hiked typically – we absolutely bombed up the mountain, passing many people along the way, and then came down slowly and carefully, being passed by multiple (often the same) people.  It’s sort of our thing at this point.