Jasper (population 4,738) sat on the northern end of Jasper National Park. We stayed in Whistler’s Campground, part of several National Park campgrounds, which provided accommodations for over 1,000 campers. I tried in advance to make our reservation online, but only one dry site was shown as available. Finding this difficult to believe, I finally called, and a ranger indeed advised that this was the last open site. Understandably, we took it. Oddly though, when I hiked through the campground, there were many open sites, so not sure what the story was. Nonetheless, our campsite was great, with a view of the Jasper Skytram mountain station to the west.
We learned about “Quaking Aspens” while visiting the Hartman’s in Colorado Springs during 2023. These interesting trees were next to our campsite, and we watched them as we enjoyed an evening glass of wine. Peaceful!
We drove to the base of the Jasper Skytram in the hopes of my hiking the Skytram Trail (5.1-mile out and back with elevation change of 1,650′). The trail was closed, which I took as a positive sign after seeing the steepness of the ascent. We decided instead to ride the tram up and back. The Jasper Skytram has been Canada’s longest and highest guided aerial tramway since construction was completed in 1964. We rode in a 26-passenger gondola and climbed 2,706′ in 7 minutes to an elevation of 7,424′. The mountain station provided incredible views of Jasper and surrounds, had a gift shop MFI visited for the grands, and the Summit Café. While MFI checked out the mountain station, I hiked to The Whistlers Summit (1.4-miles out and back with 656′ elevation change).
The trail was tougher than originally thought. The elevation adversely impacted my breathing, and there were two long and slippery snow fields that had to be crossed cautiously before reaching the top. That said, the views were breath-taking as expected. Hoary Marmots inhabited the alpine regions, and I saw a number of them. We learned they survive on a diet of lichen, which was abundant on the rocks. Marmots are a rodent related to squirrels and prairie dogs. They grow to 30″ and weigh up to 26 pounds. Who knew?
MFI had lunch waiting when I returned to the Summit Café. The Bison Chili was delicious.
I took two hikes durng our stay: one on a nice trail winding through the campground, and the other, on nearby Edge of the World Trail. The views along and outside the park trail were very sccenic, and I encountered a number of local inhabitants. Food and coffee trucks have become more and more prevalent in RV parks. We didn’t dine or drink at this one; however, it stayed busy and consumers raved about it.
For the second hike quite frankly, its name made it sound much more interesting than it turned out. The trail was rated “easy,” but the short off-trail path to the warterfall was very steep and dangerous. We’ve seen a lot of waterfalls on our travels, but this one warranted hand-made “air quotes” when calling it a waterfall. Except for the large interesting remnants of packed snow and ice, this waterfall sounded great but looked bad. I worried about the rambunctious son of a family I met at the trails end. He was bouncing all over the place without much parental supervision, yet there were numerous spots where a slip meant falling over the edge. Yikes!
We went into Jasper several times to get coffee and look around. The town had a Banff look, albeit smaller; however, the vibe was much more friendly and relaxed, at least in our opinions. We found our go-to coffee shop (loved the ram logo), and saw our first and second grizzly on the road into town. Both bears seemed awfully close to hikers and road workers who were present during both sightings.
EPILOGUE
We left Banff on 9 June after 3 funifilled days and continued north on our adventure. It was so utterly sad to subsequently hear about and see news clips of the late July fire, which destroyed one-third of the city residences and businesses. This wildfire was the largest to hit Jasper National Park in over 100 years. It was started by a lightning strike, fueled by drought-dried vegetation, and caused a mandatory evacuation of the city on 22 July. Residents were allowed back into town only as recently as 16 August. Fortunately, no resident were lost; however, a 24-year old firefighter was tragically killed by a falling tree while doing his job northeast of the city. The wounds inflicted by this disaster will require a long,long time to heal, and our memories will be forever tainted.
