Whitehorse to Jasper
September 9, 2023
I had not made any camping plans for the Labor Day holiday weekend as we drove east from Whitehorse to Jasper National Parc. Back in March, I had decided that we would take a relaxed approach to the weekend and find someplace to land as long as we stayed away from the major parks. Honestly, it worked out better than I had expected!
On Saturday, September 2, we stopped at Purden Lake Provincial Park in the early afternoon as a nice camp spot was available.
We walked down to the lake and found it full of families splashing in the water, sunbathing, and grilling. As pleasant as it was, we drove to the Ancient Forest Provincial Park the next day, where we spent several hours hiking the trails entirely on boardwalks. Unlike the coastal rainforests of Vancouver Island, this inland rainforest is one of a kind.
We enjoyed the peace and solitude as we were there early, but it did get busy later in the morning, so we continued our drive east to LaSalle Lake Recreation Area. There was an available campsite across from the lake, and as we were settling in, our neighbors on the lake said they were leaving so we could have their site. It was a fantastic site, and — free!
Later in the afternoon, we launched our two-seat inflatable kayak we had purchased for this trip. We hadn’t even unfolded it until now, and for its maiden voyage, we discovered that our “red” kayak was orange, orange, orange! Nicknamed the Orange Peel, we also found that we had forgotten the hoses that go with the pump to inflate the kayak. So, Orange Peel was a little underinflated but still performed well as we enjoyed circumnavigating the small but clear water LaSalle Lake.
We’ll try to get the hoses, but ordering them in Canada is challenging.
After a peaceful night, our Labor Day Monday drive was increasingly smoky and heavier traffic. Rearguard Falls is the furthest east the salmon travel to spawn, and though it is too late in the season for them, we did see some whitewater rafters just leaving for a trip downstream. I waved, and they waved back! I’m sure they thought we wished we were with them — and they were right!
That afternoon, we made it to Jasper, our destination for the next few days, where the air quality was “unhealthy” due to all the smoke. There is no free parking in town, so we didn’t linger at the visitor center after we talked to a ranger who confirmed we had solid plans for our visit and gave us a few other ideas.
Campground is further out of town and much more forested than the other campgrounds, and on our drive in, we saw a magnificent bull elk just walking along the road!
The smoke was so thick we could hardly see the outlines of nearby mountains.
The following day, the predicted rain came, so we waited until lunchtime to drive up the narrow, steep, winding road to Mount Edith Cavell. We walked to Cavell Pond on the Path of Glacier Trail, where we saw the pond and Angel Glacier above. The rain removed the smoke so you could see much better, though now there was some fog to contend with.
Wednesday, we left early and drove the Icefields Parkway to the Columbia Icefield Centre. Along the way, we stopped at Athabaska Falls and Sunwapta Falls. Athabasca Falls was awe-inspiring with its narrow slot canyon and abandoned channel. The waterfall was short but powerful, and we enjoyed walking to all the viewpoints in solitude.
We had tickets for the Icefield Adventure at 10. We first got onto a shuttle bus to cross the street to a depot, where we boarded an enormous glacier crawler.
The crawler took us up and down a steep hill, through a tire wash (deep puddle), and then onto the glacier. There was a groomed area where all the crawlers parked inside a roped-off “safe” area for visitors to walk on.
Does the kid in the middle look old enough to drive that monster crawler?
It was such a different experience than the one we had in Wrangell-St. Elias!! Walking on the glacier with the mountains in close backdrop was neat. Larry drank some glacier ice and helped others take photos before we returned to the crawler, then a bus that took us up the Parkway to the Skywalk.
The SkyWalk lets you walk out on a glass overlooking the valley below. The drop-off was very steep, so of course, you felt like you would fall through the air to the river below, and it was a hoot to watch everyone’s reactions.
We drove to Maligne Canyon just after dawn the next day and hiked the bridges. A narrow river carved the canyon with potholes, swirls, and unique beauty.
We stopped at the large but shallow Medicine Lake that drains into Maligne Canyon. Driving along the banks, you can see the cracks in the lake bottom where the drainage occurs. Long ago, they even tried stuffing newspapers into the cracks to stop the drainage!
We found a good parking spot at Maligne Lake and walked the Moose Lake Trail (no moose) and the Mary Shäefer Trail along the lake.
At 4:30, we took the cruise out to near Spirit Island. You can’t walk on Spirit Island, but you can get a good picture, and we had a lovely late afternoon light for that!
On the way home, we stopped in Jasper to do laundry and pick up some groceries, so it was pretty late and very dark when we got back to camp. On Friday, we hiked the Valley of Five Lakes Trail. Lake One wasn’t much, but Lakes 2-5 were lovely, clear, and beautiful blue!
We took photos at the red chairs and enjoyed low numbers of people on the trail until the end, where at the trailhead, someone had just tested their bear spray (why?) and left a lingering acrid residue that burned your eyes and throat. We had a fire and a rare treat of roasted hot dogs for dinner that evening.
On Saturday, September 9, we said goodbye to Jasper and drove down the Icefields Parkway again to Banff.
We stopped for a short hike at Waterfowl Lake, where the campground was closed for the season. Paw prints of a big cat were in the mud along the stream!
We hiked up to Peyto Lake, which is very popular but still fun, and then Bow Lake, where we walked the lakeshore.
Bow Lake would be an excellent stop to stay awhile, and we enjoyed a sandwich and cookie from the Lodge Cafe on the remainder of our beautiful drive into Banff.
Fun Fact: When Apple launched the 2014 iPad, an image of Spirit Island was chosen to illustrate its photographic capabilities, and according to our tour guide the island is still one of the most photographed places in the Canadian Rockies!