She Says: Red Jasper
Our five days in Jasper were absolutely magical. Good weather helps, but you also felt like you were one with the wilderness. We were told that there was a family of Grizzlies that live in and around the campground… and that we should sleep with the bear spray, and not cook or eat in our sleeping clothes. This created a small problem. Because the temperature was dropping below zero degrees each night, pretty much all of my clothes were designated sleeping clothes… and my one remaining outfit was pretty gross by the end of the week!!
Moving on…
We didn’t see the grizzlies, but there was a herd of elk (have you heard of elk?) that cruised into the campground every evening. Apparently this means the bears had been hanging around, and the elk prefer to chill out with the humans than the bears. I get that.
So in Jasper we hiked, swam, golfed and drank beer. This was my favourite beer, and you should go read about Andy’s golf experience at the super boujie Jasper Park Lodge course.
A few highlights were:
Maligne Lake – everyone’s favourite Jasper lake, which we visited early one cloudy day and pretty much had the place to ourselves. We did a trail, enjoyed the views and headed on our merry way.
Maligne Canyon – a giant, extremely narrow canyon that’s up to 50m deep in parts. It’s long been used for sightseeing, so there are many trails and bridges to make sure you can see the waterfalls, whirlpools, steam outlets, and beautiful flora and fauna of the area.
Lake Annette – an awesome spot to spend an afternoon, with a small beach to satisfy the crazy people out there. The water was COLD. Not glacier-melt cold, but pretty close.
Andy’s braver than me!
Valley of the Five Lakes – a beautiful 5k hike, probably my favourite of the trip. The effort-payoff ratio was really high, with five magnificent lakes to explore along the way.
The Spice Joint – a random hole-in-the-wall establishment in Jasper town. Very unsuspecting, and super unexpected. I’m not afraid to admit that I had two jerk chicken sandwiches in one day. And the beef patties were insane. An absolute delight.
We noticed that a lot of the trees were red in Jasper. Thinking that it was far too early for the autumn colours, we did a bit of research and learned about the mountain pine beetle epidemic. The beetles impact the flow of sap and nutrients in the trees, effectively starving them. As they die, they turn red, then grey. It’s very sad, with about 50% of the trees in the park affected. Parks Canada says it will take about a decade for the forest to begin to regenerate, and then it will be a very different forest. Usually the beetles don’t survive at such high elevations, but due to climate change they are able to survive the warmer winters. Super sad.
