Jasper, Alberta - September 17th to 19th, 2022

National Parks are national parks for a reason, no matter what country you are in. Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada was spectacular, living up to its national park status.

We got an early start on Saturday. It was only a one hour drive from Robson River Campground to Jasper, Alberta. However, we wanted to snag a campsite in Whistlers Campground and we lost an hour due to crossing into a new time zone. So we were pulling out at 8 am, Pacific time, which was 9 am Mountain time.

Mount Robson Provincial Park’s eastern boundary borders right up against the Alberta province and Jasper National Park. The Robson River Campground is on the west side of the provincial park, so it is a pretty drive through the park. Unfortunately, there was pretty low cloud cover starting out. We couldn’t see any of Mount Robson. But the skies starting clearing up along the way. At the border of the national park is an entrance gate. We showed them our Parks Canada Family Discovery Pass (an annual national park pass) and we were motioned along. Jasper National Park, along with most of Canada’s national parks, charge a daily entrance fee. We are not really sure how that works for Jasper and Banff, since there are highways that pass through them. We believe there is some kind of waiver if you are just passing right through and not stopping, but we don’t know the details.

We reached the town of Jasper, which is inside the national park, around 10 am. We parked in the free RV parking lot and displayed our Discovery Pass in the dash just to make sure. Most of the other places in town charge for parking. From there, we walked along the shops and hotels on Connaught Drive down to Bear’s Paw Bakery. Since check out time for the Whistlers Campground is at 11 am, we assumed that we couldn’t try to get a first come/first serve site until then. At the bakery, Ann ordered a bear paw with raisins since it seemed appropriate given the name of the bakery, while Keith got the cinnamon sticky bun. There wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the two, other than the bear paw was a little drier, with less butter and sugar. Both were tasty, but not the best we’ve ever had.

On our walk back to our Red Tail Lodge (our camper van), we stopped in the Jasper National Park Information Centre. It is located inside a log and stone building of the Rustic style typical of many Canadian national parks. After picking up a few brochures, we hopped back into our van and drove over to Whistlers Campground.

Just after 11 am, we had no problem getting a camp site. There were plenty to choose from. The campground was still pretty empty by the time we went to bed. We chose a site with an electrical hookup. We’ll probably need it to charge our batteries after staying in the same place for three days.

The weather was clearing up, so we took advantage of it. After eating lunch, we drove over to Maligne Canyon to go on a hike. We went on the Maligne Canyon Trail to the Fifth Bridge. Wow! All we can say is wow! The trail follows a narrow canyon with rushing water and waterfalls. A spectacular sight.

From the trailhead parking lot, the trail crosses the Second Bridge, crosses back over the Third Bridge, then goes out and comes back on the Fourth Bridge. The canyon then widens a bit from the Fourth Bridge to the Fifth Bridge, so people can turn around at the Fourth Bridge and don’t miss much other than some distance and elevation gain. There is also parking at the Fifth Bridge, so you could do the hike in the opposite direction. If you’re not sure you want to tackle the whole trail, then we would recommend starting at the Maligne Canyon Trailhead because the most unusual views are closer to the beginning. That way you’ll be sure to see the most spectacular views if you decide to turn back early. If you’re sure you want to tackle the whole trail, you might want to start at the Fifth Bridge and work your way back to the Maligne Canyon Trailhead. There is even a tea house, the Maligne Canyon Wilderness Kitchen, near the trailhead which you could make your mid-trail treat.

So you may be asking what happened to the First Bridge? It is between the Maligne Canyon Trailhead and the teahouse at the other end of the parking lot from the trailhead. Be sure not to miss it. We visited it on the way back. Instead of crossing at the Second Bridge on the way back, we continued along the west side of the canyon. The trail passes by another stunning viewpoint before crossing over the First Bridge to the teahouse. As we were returning on the trail from the Fifth Bridge, we thought we probably should have done the trail in reverse because the Fifth Bridge seemed rather anti-climatic. But the section of the trail between the Second Bridge and the teahouse was the highlight of the trail for us. What a great high note to end the hike on!

It took us almost three hours to complete the 3.5 miles and 532 feet of elevation gain. Keith had a hard time keeping Ann moving because she wanted to take so many pictures. This was hike number 43 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.

Continuing our adventure of Jasper, we drove back into town and ate dinner at the Jasper Brewing Company. Keith ordered the fish and chips along with a pilsner, but Ann felt adventurous and tried the falafel burger with seared halloumi. She had to look up what halloumi is. It’s a cheese from Cyprus with a high melting point, so it can be fried or grilled. The cheese was pretty tasty when she sampled it by itself, but she had a hard time tasting it on the burger with all the other wonderful flavors on it, such as the tahini sauce, the pickled red cabbage, and the dill labneh. Delicious! And she also loved the yam fries. She found it interesting that they called them yam fries instead of sweet potato fries like we do in the States. But they described the falafel burger as being on a sweet potato bun instead of a yam bun. Some people use the terms sweet potato and yam interchangeably while others argue that they are two different vegetables. She’s not sure what the case is here.

The weather forecast looked beautiful for Sunday followed by rain on Monday. So we ordered tickets online for the Jasper Skytram for Sunday. There is a short hike from the top of the tram to Whistlers Summit, so we wanted to do that on the nicest weather day.

The Jasper Skytram is located just a few kilometers further down the road from the Whistlers Campground, so it was a short drive for us. It is short enough, just a couple of kilometers, that we could have walked, but we would rather spend our time on top of the mountain instead of walking a road. Our tickets were for the 11:09 “flight”. We were prepared for cold and wind up on top of the mountain. We packed extra warm layers in our small packs along with warm gloves and our Yaktrax (paid link). From the campground the day before, we could see patches of snow up on the mountain, so we wanted to prepared.

The tram ride was only seven minutes long. When we reached the top of the tram, we were pleasantly surprised. The sun was shining. Almost all of the snow had melted from the summit. And there was no wind. Even though it was about 10 degrees F (5 degrees C) cooler than the valley below, it was in the 40’s F (upper single digits C) on top. We were dressed too warm. No gloves were needed.

After snapping a few pictures of the scenery at the top of the tram, we headed inside to the cafe for lunch. The tables inside the cafe all have beautiful views out across the valley to the mountains on the other side along with views of the town of Jasper below. For lunch, Keith enjoyed the buffalo chili while Ann loved the Korean chicken bowl. Then we were ready to climb a mountain.

From the tram building, it is only about a mile to Whistlers Summit, but it is steep. We didn’t get too far before we were shedding our puffy coats and still managed to break a sweat. In addition to the trail that goes straight (and up) to the summit, there are a few side trails that go out to some viewpoints, including the false summit. We went directly up to the summit, then took all the side trails on the way back down. There was only one short section that was a little sketchy, slick mud on a steep slope. It was more of a problem going down than going up, but we just took it slowly and had no issues.

There were views of mountain peaks in every direction. The sun was lighting them all up. The peak of Mount Robson was even clearly visible. Mount Robson is the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The views also seemed to change as we moved along the trail. Just simply stunning.

It took us an hour and 40 minutes to cover the 2.2 miles with an elevation gain of 774 feet. This was hike number 44 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.

By the time we returned to the tram building, it wasn’t even 2 pm yet. Our return “flight” was scheduled for 3:30 pm. Our original plan was to relax in the cafe, enjoying a dessert along with the views. However, we were planning to hike the Valley of the Five Lakes the next day. Instead, we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and try to fit Valley of the Five Lakes in the afternoon. We were able to change our return flight and made it back down by 2:30 pm.

The Valley of the Five Lakes trailhead was only a 20 minute drive from the tram station, so we were on the trail before 3 pm. Again, we were overdressed. We pulled all the extra layers out of our small packs, added a water bottle, bear spray and a granola bar before hitting the trail. Ann had her warm hiking pants on and stripped down to a long sleeve t shirt and hiking shirt. She still was too warm, but did not complain. We would rather be too warm than have bad weather.

Since it was late in the day, we chose the Valley of the Five Lakes short loop route. The short loop touches the First Lake, goes along the back side of the Second, Third, and Fourth Lakes before touching the Fifth Lake. We took the loop in the clockwise direction and were glad we did. The Fifth Lake seemed to be the nicest view, at least at the time of day we were there. This hike did not have the same “wow” factor as the other two hikes we’ve done in Jasper, but it is still a very nice hike. It is more relaxing and peaceful. There are even a couple of red Adirondack chairs between the Third and Fourth Lakes to sit down on to relax and enjoy the view.

It took us two hours and 17 minutes to complete the 3.4 miles of 561 feet of elevation gain. The hike was number 45 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.

It was close to 6 pm by the time we returned to our camp site. Luckily, we had leftovers that we could heat up and eat for dinner so we didn’t have to cook. It was still nice enough outside that we sat outside in our camp chairs enjoying the view of the surrounding mountains.

Monday was a day to chill. It was drizzling rain in the morning. It didn’t get quite as cold as they were predicting so there was no snow where we were. When the clouds cleared a little later in the day, we could see there was snow up on Whistlers Mountain, where we were hiking the day before.

In the morning, we took showers. The bath houses at Whistlers felt like a resort spa compared to the other campgrounds we visited this season. The large building was new, modern, spacious, and clean. The campground was recently refurbished in 2021. The restrooms and shower rooms were heated. We only came back down to reality while taking a shower when the shower turned off ten seconds after we pushed the button. The building seemed rather large for just having three bathroom stalls for each gender and only three showers total. Was the large room between the restrooms and showers intended to be some kind of emergency shelter? It was bare except for a bench to sit on while waiting for a shower and informational boards on the walls.

After lunch, we drove into town. First stop was the Other Paw Bakery Cafe for a treat. The Other Paw is run by the same folks who own the Bear’s Paw Bakery that we went to a couple of days earlier. In the meantime, Ann visited their website. They claim that their raspberry white chocolate scones are famous, so Ann gave it a try. They are delicious. She liked the scone much better than the bear paw she had before. Keith stuck with the sticky bun.

Next on the agenda was the park information center to buy a sticker. We collect stickers from places we visit that are run by the National Park Service in the States. We debated whether the Canadian national parks counted, but we bought one from Pacific Rim National Park earlier in the season, so we needed to get one for Jasper National Park. We’re running out of room for more stickers on our sink cabinet door and fridge door, so we’ll have to start placing them on the drawer front below our fridge.

We picked up a few items at the TGP, Your Jasper Grocer. Then we walked by the Coin Clean Laundry to check it out. We were hoping to do a load of laundry. However, the sign said they closed at 3 pm and it was almost 2 pm. Oh well, we’ll have to wait until Banff in four days.

Back at the campground, we went for a walk. Whistlers Campground is huge. It has 781 camp sites, but they are laid out nicely so that each site is close to a bath house. They are arranged in loops that are entered from a two way road that encircles the whole campground. A walking trail extends from one side of the campground to the other. We picked up the walking trail near the bath house for our set of three loops.

Right near the bathhouse was a bull elk along with his girlfriend. It was elk rut. The bull was busy trying to rub the velvet of his antlers off using a tree trunk. Every now and then we could hear a male bugling.

From our loop, we followed the walking trail over to the group camping site. There was a trail that looped around the meadow of the group site, so we followed that. Then we headed back on the walking trail over to the other end of the campground.

The trail passed by a playground, a recycling center, and what we would call an amphitheater, but they call it just a theatre.

There was also a shiny metallic food truck. It is called Lil’ Bear and is operated by Bear’s Paw Bakery. They offer hot and cold drinks with a handful of pastries, including their raspberry white chocolate scones. A sign indicated that the food truck had been closed since the power outage. That’s OK, we already had our bakery treat for the day.

Along the trail, we walked through a large gaggle of Canadian geese, came across a white-tailed deer, and left the trail twice to go around another two bull elk. We wanted to give them lots of room as we didn’t care to be gored by those large antlers.

We didn’t realize how long the trail was. We were walking for an hour and a half, covering 3.3 miles. Now that’s a large campground! Who needs to drive to a trail when you can hike right from your camp site? There were views of the surrounding mountain peaks. The west side of the campground was more in the trees, so there were times we felt like we were strolling through the woods. There was footbridge across a small stream. And we saw more wildlife in the campground than we did on any of the other hikes in Jasper put together. OK, we’ll admit, the other hikes we did were more stunning.

Even though it was an easy walk, it felt like a hike, so we counted it as hike #46 of our 52 Hike Challenge. Yes, as the season is progressing, we’re getting more and more lenient on our criteria for a hike.

For dinner, we drove back into town. Pizza sounded good, so we went to Jasper Pizza Place. We ordered the traditional wood-fired pizza. Keith was daring this time and tried the Salumi while Ann ordered her usual as a “create your own”, with sausage, red pepper, and red onion. Both were delicious. Keith liked the honey on his pizza. He thought the sweetness balanced out the spiciness of the chilies nicely. We also tried their dessert, the Zeppoles. It was fresh donuts (fried balls of pizza dough), covered with caramel and chocolate sauce. We like that it was not too sweet. Not the best dessert we’ve ever had, but it was a nice finish to our meal.

Jasper exceeded our expectations. We were excited to drive down the Icefields Parkway from Jasper National Park and into Banff National Park to see more wonderful sights.

Check out our related video: Jasper, Alberta

(Ann)