Canada Part 2: Jasper NP

2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 37-39

Jasper NP is similar to Banff in many ways: still in the Canadian Rockies, has similar hikes, and paired with a nice touristy town of the same name. Though it’s also adjacent to Banff NP, it’s a three hour drive between Banff and Jasper’s town centers. I think it is often skipped because it’s more difficult to get to and offers much of the same as Banff. My reaction to that: Jasper’s like getting a second season of your favorite TV show!

Day 37: Jasper

The three hour drive is part of the attraction since it is scenic and has several stops along the way. The main stop is Athabasca Glacier, which sits across from a fancy visitor center. The visitor center even has a Starbucks which touts itself as “the highest elevation Starbucks in Canada”.

This is also where you can pay to go on an Ice Explorer tour, where a special bus with giant tires drives you onto a glacier – specifically, the Columbia Icefield – and lets you out to walk around. We didn’t do it. It cost something like $100 CAD per person, and plus we had free ways to walk on ice at high altitudes. 😛

Still, we stopped and checked out the “toe of the Athabasca Glacier”, a short trail from the road that leads you to a point a few hundred feet from the glacier. It’s pretty unique that this glacier extends so close to a road. There were displays showing how far the glacier had retreated over time due to climate change. It recedes something like 10 meters per year nowadays! 🥵

man, if I had visited when I was 2 years old I could have touched it

After this stop we kept driving until we reached Jasper town. We got some coffee (from Andromeda Coffee) and a sticky bun (from Other Bear Paw) that really hit the spot. Also, I sorely needed a haircut, and Judy found somewhere I could go:

not only is it $10, it's $10 CAD (that's less than $8 USD!)

Just kidding, I didn’t ask a six year old (?) to cut my hair. (I’d eventually get one around Seattle.)

After all that we drove a short distance to our campsite at Whistler campground. I was looking forward to this one because not only did they have free showers, but the campground underwent renovations from 2019 to 2021, so they were going to be niiiice.

The grounds were a bit bare, lacking shade, which was rough during a heat wave. They had to remove most trees due to a pine beetle infestation. But it was fine once the sun set. More than fine, actually.

Apart from the lack of shade, this campground would have been perfect. It was definitely the nicest one we stayed at the entire road trip.

Day 38: Whistlers Trail

As far as we could tell, there were two hikes near Jasper that really stood out from the rest. The Whistlers Trail (10.3 mi, 4300 ft elev gain), and Mount Edith Cavell (5.8 mi, 2700 ft elev gain). We had a full day on our hands, and we didn’t do any hiking yesterday, so we opted for the harder one.

The Whistlers Trail is not related to the popular Whistlers ski area in Canada, which is north of Vancouver. But they’re both named after marmots, who make a loud whistle as an alert to other marmots!

The beginning of the trail was a bit buggy, but it was nice once it opened up. The whole thing was consistently pretty steep, to the point where it was clear that coming back down would be a real drag on the knees.

We registered 4100 ft over the 5.1 mile trek to reach the peak. The top can also be reached by gondola, so it was kind of crowded. It felt like a badge of honor to look like a tired hiker among the lot of gondola riders.

It had a great view of Jasper from above. Just like that other trail in Banff!

Knowing the steepness in store for our joints on the way back, we decided to pay for the one-way gondola ride down. It was pretty nice; I wish this was an option on all there-and-back hikes. That or a giant slide.

We spent much of the day’s remainder in town. One highlight was getting laundry done: not only did the laundromat have Wifi, but they also had a nice cafe inside (and the coffee was good!). I already like laundromats in general for their community feeling, and that made it even better.

We ate out in Jasper this night. It’s a lot easier to be flexible with meal planning when your campground is right next to a town with a grocery store. In typical circumstances we would be forced to cook food we’d previously stocked up, lest it spoil. We also got Beaver Tails for dessert yet again, figuring it would be our last chance this trip.

Day 39: Drive to Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park of Canada, that is! West of the Banff / Jasper area are two more national parks within a few hours’ driving distance: Mount Revelstoke and Glacier. On researching Mount Revelstoke, we didn’t see much to attract us, so we decided to skip it. Glacier, on the other hand, looked very exciting.

I would have liked to do the Mount Edith Cavell hike this morning before heading out, but it was more important to get to Glacier early to get a spot. There’s really only one good campground in Glacier for hikers, and it’s first-come-first-serve. Was this shaping up to be a repeat of the USA Glacier? I really hope not…

I’ll leave the rest for the next post, but suffice it to say that Glacier (of Canada) would become my favorite park of the whole trip so far.

post originally written 8/25, backdated to match reality