Jasper National Park is the largest one in the Canadian Rockies – it features glacier fed lakes, glaciers, hot springs and impressive mountain peaks. It became a National Park in 1930, and one of its earliest explorers was a woman named Mary Shaeffer who named most of the mountains in the region. It’s a beautiful place, less visited by Banff, which really adds to its intrigue!
We drove from Calgary to Jasper National Park via the icefields parkway – a much shorter, but just as (if not more so) road like the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s the only real route between Jasper and Banff. It took a few hours, mostly because the scenery is so awe inspiring and requires lots of stops to take in the beauty.
We made it to Whistlers Campground (no thanks to Siri, who directed us to the National Park Service headquarters “downtown”, and got checked in. It was a weekend, and one of the last of the summer, so the campground was packed. It was definitely the biggest campground I’ve ever been to… we were in loop 23 (there were at least 29 of them) and each had about 10 sites. There were bathrooms nearby, and a showerhouse on the other side of the campground, and a giant firewood pile for us to pilfer from. After only being there for about an hour, a mama elk (holy cow, she was HUGE!) decided to come walking through and eat some of the wildflowers growing in the site.
Saturday morning we headed for Maligne Lake. On my previous trips to the Canadaian Rockies, I’d always been rained out but the forecast was perfect! We took a boat cruise to Spirit Island, and it was incredible. I was a bit skeptical about 32 tourists crammed into a boat for an hour or so, but the view was worth it, and our tour guide Cam (and his partner, the boat captain Scott) made the trip spectacular. Cam has a real love of these mountains and their history, and it showed in his commentary. I loved learning the history of the lake, of the First Nations people who lived there and still find so much peace and power in its shores.
We got to see Spirit Island, a beautiful spot at the far end of the lake, only accessible by boat. Though the sun was high in the sky, flattening the landscape, my photos turned out well, and now I have the dream of visiting again, but this time via a canoe and one of the backcountry campsites that are only accessible via a canoe or kayak. This is just one of the many places I want to see again on my next trip to the Canadian Rockies (three is definitely not enough!)
We had pints at the Jasper Brewing Company (decent beer, but not at all worth of an entire post unlike the Dandy Brewing Company in Calgary!). From what I can understand Jasper Brewing and Banff Brewing have the same parent company and that’s probably the only reason they could exist before Alberta beer legislation changed in 2013. Again, the beer was fine, but reminded me a bit of the other brew pubs that open mostly to service the one location. (The former Hops in Charlotte, or Rock Bottom Brewery (and that chain).
The next morning I woke up before anyone else and headed for sunrise. I picked an easy to get to spot off of the Icefields Parkway with great views of the Athabasca River and Pyramid Mountain. It was a great start to the day for me!
Teardrops & Ales 