Canadian Rockies: Jasper

If Banff National Park is the most visited national park in Canada, then Jasper National Park is the crown jewel of the Canadian Rockies. Whereas Banff is more developed, has more infrastructure for tourists and has the more popular spots, it is also the more crowded (sometimes overwhelmingly so) park. Jasper is more wild, more scenic, and is for the more adventurous.

You access Jasper from Banff through the Icefields Parkway. I have written about this highway before - it is the most scenic highway in the world. You may think this is being over hyped but it's not. It really is that pretty. You have to stop numerous times on various lookout points just to take it all in.

There's not a lot of hotels or options in the southern part of Jasper, so we stayed the night at a resort midway between Banff and Jasper.

Columbia Glacier and the Canyon Glass Floor

This is the last outing you do as part of the Ultimate Explorer. The Athabasca Glacier is at the heart of the incredible Icefields Parkway, and is one of the largest non-polar ice fields in the world. It is also the most visited glacier in North America.

Here, you’ll travel on a massive Ice Explorer to a place where you can walk on, feel and drink from the fresh waters of the glacier. These vehicles are massive - each of their tires is almost as tall as a man and is worth $5000!

The glacier waters are ice cool (of course!) and incredibly fresh. No mineral water tastes like this! You can drink it straight from the source.

Then, take a jaw-dropping walk along the glass-floored Skywalk at the cliff’s edge, a short five minutes drive away.

One big difference from my last trip to the glacier three years ago is the size of the glacier. It was noticeably smaller, and I have read that they are losing a little bit of the glacier every year. The area you could walk around was definitely smaller. Another difference, though not an important one, was the variety of food in the cafeteria. They have much better vegetarian and seafood options now! Still no halal though ...

Sunwapta Falls

You must visit this falls if you are travelling through Jasper. There are two famous falls in the park (the other being Athabasca Falls), but this was is more accessible.

It is not too far off the highway, has ample parking (it can fill up but enough people are always leaving, so there's always space) and the lookout point is quite close to the falls.

First Sighting of Wildlife: Mountain Goats

Imagine going through Jasper National Park, famous for its wildlife, and not seeing any! It was our last day in Jasper and we hadn't really seen anything of note. When suddenly my son pointed this out:

Do you see it? I wonder how he saw it. And then we saw it.

It was a whole family of mountain goats.

Jasper Skytram

This is often an overlooked attraction, but do not miss it. On a clear day you get some amazing views.

We could see the peak of Mount Robson (all the way in British Columbia). That is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3,954 metres (12,972 ft). Our guide told us such clear weather (to see Mount Robson) we were enjoying happened once every week for only two hours at the top.

The small town of Jasper (from which the park gets its name) can also be seen from the top.

Keep in mind that Jasper is more "wild". Look at the barriers. These are not the child friendly barriers that are common in Banff. A small child can easily slip through them, so be careful of where your kids are at all times.

You can even go for further hikes up the mountain. Many people do. We did part of the way.

After exploring the peak, it was time to get down and go towards Hinton, a small town just outside of Jasper to the north - our pitstop for the night. On the way there, we made a small detour to Pyramid Lake, and boy we were glad we did.

Pyramid Lake and more wildlife

The Pyramid Lake (just five minutes away from the town of Jasper) is a beautiful lake, but nothing extra ordinary about it compared to the other magnificent lakes we had seen so far. What made it special was the forest and woods around it. As we were driving back, suddenly we see this ...

It's a deer. And then we see other moose and elk nearby. And then a whole family of them decided to cross the road.

More of their cousins were dotted around the small road. We drove by very slowly.

Then we approached a heavily wooded area. It reminded me of the story of Red Riding Hood. But instead of a wolf, would we see a bear?

YES! There it was!

A bear sighting is usually the highlight of wildlife spotting in Jasper. We were very lucky indeed. The bear was merely 500m away, and happily munching on her food, while we stayed safely away and took pictures.

Overall we spent two and half days in Jasper National Park, and I wish we could have spent more. There were so many other things to do, other sights to see, other trails to hike. Canada is very lucky to include Jasper!