Jasper National Park is one of Canada’s beautiful National Parks, located in the Canadian Rockies, west of Canada, in Alberta county. The park is open all year round; attracting tourists from all over the world.

I visited Jasper in August 2010, with my 2 parents and 2 sisters. We visited as part of a 3-week road trip, touring around western Canada, in hired a car, spending most of our nights, camping in a tent.

Campsite

In Jasper National Park we camped at a campsite called Wabasso Campground. The campsite was located just a 21-minute drive away from the commercial centre, Jasper.

While we were camping at Wabasso Campground, one of the campsite owners informed us they have had recent sightings of bears roaming through their campsite. We didn’t happen to see any during our stay. However, we were told not to leave any crumbs around near our tent, food to be locked in the car at night and not in the tent, and no perfumes or strong smelling body lotions to be kept in the tent. If you did not have a car, there were bear lockers available.

On one of our nights at the campsite, they held an informative talk on the bears in the National Park. This was really interesting to listen to. Something I highly recommend you attend, if you are to stay at this campsite.

Please note: campsites in Canada are normally on hard ground and not grass fields like in England.

Jasper

The commercial centre, Jasper is only a small place. A great place to stop by to collect information on Jasper National Park, stock up on groceries if you are self-catering like ourselves, and a place to fill up on fuel. If you are not camping, then there are plenty of places to stay in Jasper and restaurants to eat at.

Home To One Of The Most Scenic Road In The World

The Ice Field Parkway is meant to be one of the most scenic roads, not just in Jasper National Park, but in the world. I can’t say it disappointed me one bit. The views were breathtaking! The road takes you through the Rocky Mountains, through snow-peaked mountains, past waterfalls, and glaciers. The road takes you from Jasper National Park, leading you to another beautiful National Park, Banff, which I will take more about on my next blog.

Walking Trails

During our stay at Jasper National Park, we spent most of our time walking their trails. I feel it is one of the better ways to experience the National Park at its best. Here are some of the fantastic trails we did:

Edith Cavell Meadows Walk

The Edith Cavell Meadows Walk is great for a whole range of different abilities. You can make the walk as easy or as difficult as you want. Both walks provide beautiful views of the Alpine meadows and the beautiful, turquoise Emerald Lake.

If you are after a nice easy walk, you can take a relaxing stroll along the ‘Path of the Glacier’ to Emerald Lake. Here you will see the ice sloughing off the Angel Glacier.

If you want to be a bit more adventurous like ourselves, you can carry on with the trail and walk up to Angel Glacier. We then wanted to carry on walking along the trail, but unfortunately, the trail was closed, so we had to turn back. There was a high chance it was closed due to bear sightings. This became a common recurrence throughout the trip. However, the walk up to Angel Glacier was breathtaking, we were not disappointed at all.

Sulphur Skyline Walk

Sulphur Skyline Walk is a great walk if you are wanting to climb a summit in Jasper National Park. The walk starts near the village of Pocahontas, a 37 minutes drive from Jasper. The 6-mile walk is not an easy walk, however, as you reach the summit, the views become very rewarding.

At the end of the walk, you can pay just short of £4 and enjoy a nice soak in the sulphur baths, located next to the parking lot. Even if you have not walked up to the summit, I still recommend a soak in the hot springs. It’s a great way to relax on holiday!

Maligne Canyons

Maligne Canyons is a ‘must-do’ in Jasper National Parks. A canyon was full of powerful rapids and impressive waterfalls. It is the deepest canyon in the park, measuring up to more than 50 metres deep at certain points.

The trail is only a short 3-mile round trip. We did it later in the afternoon after a 6-mile walk up Sulphur Skyline.

Wilcox Pass

Wilcox Pass is located along the world’s most scenic road, Ice Field Parkway. The 5-mile walk took us around 2 to 3 hours to complete. To start with, the Wilcox Pass hike is steep, but within 15 minutes you rise above the tree line. Then straight ahead, staring you in the face is the magnificent Athabasca Glacier. As you continue, the views just keep improving. Eventually, you end up on the rid, seeing breathtaking views for miles and miles. Once we reached the ridge, we turned back and retraced our steps back down to the car.

For more information about Jasper National Park, please head over to the website: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/jasper

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