Blogs from Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, North America

I was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, an isolated, bitterly cold, largish metropolis 450km south of the Fort McMurray oil sands that bring wealth to the province, 275km north of the dinosaur-bone bearing badlands of Drumheller, and 3400km west of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city (with little more than prairies and lakes in between). And to the west, after only a two-hour drive (in Canadian distances, a mere stone’s throw), travelers may get their first glimpse of the grand Rocky Mountains. Another hour brings you to Jasper National Park, Banff National Park’s lesser-known and younger but physically larger brother. Jasper National Park encompasses the incredible glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, not to mention hot springs, waterfalls, 3000m+ peaks such as the towering façade of Mount Edith Cavell, and the practically guaranteed opportunity to spot wildlife suc ... read more

Hi All This is my first time here so I thought I would begin by giving a little introduction to myself and what I do. In the summertime my boyfriend and I are operating a guiding company offering guided canoe trips, backpacking and customized adventures here in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. We also spend a lot of time travelling and enjoying our own adventures. We opperate a blog on our website that keeps everyone up to date with these adventures, but we will start posting here as well. All the best to 2013 everyone... read more

We haven’t had time to update our blog in a little while as we’ve been very busy working in Maligne Canyon giving guided Ice walks (this is our winter job with Maligne Adventures) over the holidays. We finally had a couple of days off and made the most of them by tackling Elysium Pass for a nice ski tour and an overnight camping trip. Elysium Pass is about 15km one-way and can be a bit of a trek. The majority of the way in is uphill and in the trees. Now I love the forest as much as any nature lover, but I was getting pretty tired of seeing nothing but trees by about 3pm. Luckily there was only an hour left before we broke out of the trees to see the pass and to get ... read more

5:25 am -- alarm goes off. Oh, what was I thinking! David and I had a hearty breakfast -- bacon & eggs, and headed out to Maligne Lake. The drive out to the the lake was wonderful! There is nothing like the mountains in the early morning! I just sat in the passenger seat with the music playing and felt like I had been transported to the most beautiful place on the planet!! A few bull elk were feeding by the side of road. They were oblivious to our presence as we stopped and took a few photos. We arrived at the lake at about 7:00 am and were on the water by 7:30 -- the first canoe in the water for the day! Maligne Lake is a 22.5 km glacier fed lake. With not even ... read more

Standing by the raging waters of two powerful waterfalls is a transcending experience -- the spray shooting up cooling your face, the thunderous roar, and earth-moving rumble. Today we saw two magnificent waterfalls -- The Athabasca Falls and the Sunwapta Falls. Standing by these falls, I was struck by the sheer amount of water!! The source of these falls is far up the mountains in the glaciers. Millions of tiny trickles of melt-water, together with rainfall combine to eventually become these raging torrents. We are so fortunate to live in a country blessed with such an abundance of water -- the source of all life. So it’s 5:00 pm and very hot! -- 29 degrees celsius! What to do? Oh, what about going to one of those “cool” glaciers? You can walk to Angel Glacier on ... read more

DAY 7: THURSDAY, JULY 5: Our day started out rather exciting...a trip to the doctor. Maggie has had a fever and we were misled to believe you can call your doctor in the US and have a prescription transferred to Canada. So off to the doc she went before we got any further into this trip. After all that, we were really on our way out of Banff and on the road to Jasper at 1:00pm. The route we took was HWY 1 back to Lake Louise and then on HWY 93, The Icefields Parkway. It traces the continental divide and has over 100 glaciers on it. Now I read this is one of the most beautiful 140 miles in Canada. It sure lived up to its reputation. No sooner were we on the road did ... read more