The small town of Jasper, Alberta, is situated north of Jasper National Park, and is the perfect base to go off exploring. With a few hotels in the town, which get booked fast and are quite pricey, the best places to stay are B&B’s and self contained units. There are loads around, we found a 3 bed unit with its own lounge and kitchen. The owners were lovely, and only 20 mins from the centre of town. The town itself has a few shops and grocery stores, plus lots of restaurants and bars.

Maligne Canyon

Our first day we ventured out of the town and towards Maligne Canyon, only a 15 min drive away from town. This steep narrow gorge has the Maligne river flowing through it. There are 6 bridges that cross the canyon, the first one starting from the main car park. Here the views are the most dramatic as its the highest.

The tour buses stop here and hoards of people file out but they only have a short time before heading off. Be patient they will leave and you can have the place to yourselves.

You can walk as far as you like, there are plenty of hiking trails around the canyon, all of which are well signposted. We started at bridge 1, walking along the canyon, crossing all the other bridges to the last one. After that we hiked up the side of a hill back to the start. 
The canyon was beautiful and dramatic, the formations in the limestone that the glacier had cut out years ago were just spectacular. It was snowing the day we visited which added to the beauty of the place. Waterfalls cascaded down the rocks, all different sizes and heights.

You can see why this is said to be the most beautiful canyon in the Rockies.

The walk was pleasant all the way to the sixth bridge, mostly even and flat ground. Once we arrived at the last bridge we turned around and hiked up the hill, heading back to the car park. The climb was really steep and we had to stop a few times to catch our breath. At the top you can see amazing views overlooking the river below with the mountains in the background.

Medicine Lake

Further on up the road from the canyon is Medicine Lake. This Lake is technically not a lake, as its fed by underwater streams and caves from the rivers and glaciers. In autumn and winter the level is very low but in the summer its very high. Its supposed to be the prettiest lake in Jasper National Park.

As you can see here the water level was quite low, but it was still beautiful to see. It was quite cloudy the day we visited and didn’t have time to do any hikes, so we stopped here to have our lunch.

Maligne Lake

Driving to Maligne Lake. On the drive we saw a female and baby moose walking alongside the road and a small deer (possible an Elk). A bit further on we spotted a male Moose sitting down, I couldn’t believe how big it was, the antlers were huge. We really didn’t fancy meeting one of those on the road.

At the end of the road is Maligne Lake, again lots of hikes start here. We decided to do Moose Lake Loop a 1.5 mile walk. The hikes are all easily signposted, so off we went. It had been snowing so all the trees were surrounded by snow. but the path had been walked on so it was completely muddy, It took way longer than expected. It was very quiet and still, the walk leads to a tranquil lake, called Moose Lake renowned for its moose sightings. We kept our eyes opened but only found some tracks in the snow.

The walk leads alongside Maligne Lake itself, this 13 mile long lake is popular in the summer for all the usual watersports. In autumn you can still hire canoes but the water must be cold, but its still a beautiful Lake. Even though when we were there is was extremely misty so the views were not too good.

We also decided to just have a cup of coffee and sit and watch the tranquil lake rather than participating in any cold watersports!

Other places in the area.

We continued back towards Jasper and our accommodation to get warmed up and headed into town for dinner. We ate in a restaurant called Earls diner, the food and service was excellent, and after 3 courses we walked back to go to sleep.

There’s also Jasper skytram which boasts amazing views over the Rockies, we ran out of time and the weather wasn’t on our side so we gave it a miss.

Miette hot springs is situated 60 km east of Jasper town, which is worth a visit if you have time. These naturally heated pools are a cheap way to spend a couple of hours.

That was the end of our Jasper stay, tomorrow on to the Icefields Parkway. Read about the icefields parkway