Jasper National Park
Canadian Rockies Road Trip, Days 10-12 | Visiting Jasper National Park | June 2023
Upon arriving in Jasper National Park while heading North on the Icefields Parkway, we were very soon greeted by an incredible sight: the Athabasca Glacier. It was too great not to stop, so we found a spot in the busy parking lot and joined all the other visitors to hike up to the toe of the glacier. We knew it would be less busy in the early morning or evening, but morning and evening hours are limited and there’s only so much you can do before peak hours arrive. And in today’s situation, it was best that we stopped and did this hike immediately, because the weather would soon turn on us for the next day and a half.
The view while going up vs. the view coming down in the rain
The hike up was short and steep, the trail made up of rocks. Curtis carried Charlotte over the metal grated bridge, and we walked up slowly with her, keeping her to the side of the wide trail so she wouldn’t be too overwhelmed by all the people. Along the trail are signs showing where the glacier used to extend to, showing how far back it’s receded over the years. When we finally made it up to the toe, it was noticeably much colder and windier, but that wasn’t because we gained so much elevation — at first we just thought it was a cold breeze coming from the glacier and just generally being around and seeing more snow, but it turned out to also be a rain shower headed our way. Thankfully we were able to get up close to the glacier — the closest we’ve ever been to one — and take in its splendor before retreating down the hill in the rain. It was rather dramatic, but I’d expect nothing less from our first real close-up glacier experience! It would have been so cool to take a tour and get out on the ice, but today clearly wasn’t the day for it.
Across the street from the glacier is the Columbia Icefield Glacier Center, and next to that is a giant parking lot specially for RVs, vans, and buses to stay overnight. We drove in and seriously considered just staying here — it was partially full, and cost $16 CA to stay there, but it had a great view of the glacier across the road. But after thinking it over we decided to continue on to a regular campground that was slightly more expensive. If it was just Curtis and I and we were concerned about finding a spot elsewhere, this parking lot would have worked, but we expected the campgrounds to not be too full and thought it was better for Charlotte to have a campsite to sniff around.
So we continued driving up to Jonas Campground. Sure enough, it was empty when we arrived, and only a couple of other people stayed there that evening. When we went to pay, we found out that because there was a fire ban in Alberta, they had reduced the cost of camping, so it turned out to be the same price as the parking lot would have been — score! It rained off and on that evening, but Charlotte still got a walk around the campground and was able to thoroughly sniff our site.
Sadly, the rain picked up that evening and continued well into the next day. We were thankful to be dry in the van, but disappointed to no longer have stunning views along the Icefields Parkway as we continued driving North to the town of Jasper. We did brave the rain to go for a short hike to Athabasca Falls, which were very full from all the rain and snow melt. We had several other hikes saved that we wanted to do, but decided today just wasn’t the right day. Instead, we drove to Jasper and did some ‘chores’. We got groceries, picked up a pizza and poutine for lunch, and took care of our recycling at today’s highlight for Curtis: a recycling area with everything separated in different bins by type — plastic, glass, cardboard, etc.
Being stubborn as we are, we decided to attempt one more hike for today, so we drove up to Pyramid Lake and hiked to Pyramid Island. The rainy vibes were beautiful in their own way, but it was a bummer to not see the mountains surrounding the lake when there were pictures showing what the view *should* look like.
Finally, we gave in and went to find a campsite. We found one easily in the Snaring Campground which was North of Jasper, and hoped to have a better day tomorrow to enjoy the park more.
Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be: the next day we woke up to find the rain had stopped…but smoky skies had set in, once again obscuring the high peaks around us from view. It wasn’t super noticeable at first and we thought it was just fog that was hazy from the sunrise, but as the sun rose higher and we started walking around outside, we realized what we were really dealing with.
We still were able to do one exciting hike in Maligne Canyon, where we enjoyed the waterfalls and marveled at how deep the canyon became as we continued walking. But we decided it wasn’t worth driving Maligne Lake Road all the way to the lakes when the view wouldn’t be that great. Curtis also had a meeting he needed to call in for, so we drove closer to Jasper where we knew he’d have reliable phone service and we could just hang out at a park.
We drove to Annette Lake, and when we arrived we found elk all over the place! They were all at the playground near the parking lot, and while Curtis was on his call they started to make their way to the lake, walking right passed our van. If Charlotte could see, she probably would have had a few choice words for them, but she was blissfully unaware of what was happening just 2 feet away from her.
After Curtis’ meeting, we got out to walk by the lake, and found that the air was becoming noticeably more smoky. While it was unfortunate, we agreed that we would simply have to return to Jasper someday to really enjoy the park. If our itinerary was more flexible, maybe we could have found more time to wait out the smoke and the weather, but we simply didn’t have time this trip, and we made peace with that. Besides needing to move on, we were also ready to stop paying for campgrounds, as we knew that once we left the national parks and the Icefields Parkway, camping would be more abundant and free. And so we said goodbye to Jasper and Alberta for now, telling ourselves over and over that we’d come back someday and make up for this.
As we were leaving the lake, Jasper gave us a special parting memory: a grizzly bear sighting — not just one, but 3! A mama bear and two cubs by the side of the road! I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to stop in the road for bears, but cars were stopped in either direction in front of us, so we had no choice but to also stop and enjoy the view. At the beginning of this trip, when we first entered Canada, Curtis started talking about bears right away and hoping that we’d see them, and I “promised” him that we would see some, saying specifically that we would see a mama bear and 2 cubs on a side of the road, safely from our van. What can I say, I have a gift! 😉 We left Jasper and started heading West on the Yellowhead Highway, off to enjoy more of British Columbia and check more items off our bucket list.
