Saturday 20th May
It was another glorious morning and there was much less smoke today, something we were both pleased by as we were heading up on the Jasper Skytram for a bit of walking and sight seeing. Mark didn’t head out on a ride this morning as his latest research showed lots of warnings about bears, black and grizzly, and how they are more prevalent in the early morning and early evening so any bike ride for him will likely be around midday! It ended up being a slow morning for us but we started off with a walk through town and Mark found a coffee shop, Andromeda, that served him up the best coffee he’s had since he’s been away. They are part of the laundromat / coffee shop business downstairs and so we may be back there later today to do some washing.
We eventually set off to catch the 10:50 am Jasper Skytram. The gondola / tram ride takes 7 minutes and deposits you at the Upper Station at an elevation of 2,263 m where the vegetation has greatly thinned as you are above the tree line. There is a restaurant above the Skytram but little else apart from various walking trails. We took the main trail up and I mean up. It wasn’t too long, Mark covered 4 km and I did 3.3 km, but the entire trail was very steep. I made it to the top area called the False Summit and Mark went on 350 m further, and through some snow, to the Main Summit. The round trip took about an hour or so and coming down was almost as challenging as going up. We didn’t check out the restaurant but headed straight back down to base and then took a 10’ drive out of town to view Lake Patricia, one of the many lakes in the area. Mark saw some cyclists on this road and then felt confident enough to tackle this journey and so he headed out for a ride on our return to the Inn.
Mark’s afternoon cycle went well with no bears but a sighting of an Elk, just for a bit of variety. Our time after that was spent at two different ends of the spectrum. Firstly at the Jasper laundromat, where we watched our washing tumble for 30 minutes, and then out to the luxury of The Fairmont, a 10 drive out of town where we watched how the other half tumble through their day. This 700 acre sprawling mountain resort wraps around Lake Beauvert and would be my choice of lodging if I was ever to return to Jasper, just for a change of scene. However, one night at the Fairmont would equate to about 5~6 nights at our lodging! We only spent an hour there, having a drink on the balcony overlooking the pool and lake, and our lovely young waitress informed us that there have been increased bear sightings around the hotel with two Grizzly bears recently appearing on the Fairmont’s golf course and the golfers had to use their Bear Mace spray! It was her opinion that the Alberta fires might have pushed the bears over to this part of the country, a rationale that made a lot of sense to us. Our next week had been going to be filled with lots of walks and trails but we are quickly revising our plans.
It was 6 pm by the time we got back to our Inn and neither of us were hungry after our Fairmont snack so we decided to have an early night.
Sunday 21st May
It was yet another glorious morning and we squeezed in a morning walk before being collected at 9.15 for our 6 hr tour out to Maligne Lake. The only disappointment was that Mark’s preferred cafe, Andromeda, was not open at this hour on a Sunday for his morning coffee.
Jasper continued to intrigue us. It has carried such a weight of recognition for us and I had always imagined it as some glitzy and upscale travel destination yet it’s such a relatively small and humble place with basic housing stock and amenities. There is no Lululemon here and I’ve come to wonder if that might be some useful metric for gauging the size and demographics of a town? I just did a check on Banff, our next stop, and it has a Lululemon so I’ll keep you posted on this little investigation.
Our guide for our Maligne Valley Wildlife & Waterfalls Tour & Lakeside Hike was Ross; a born and bread semi-retired local who was great as he was passionate about his home town and had a wealth of knowledge about the history of Jasper.
There were many great stories that Ross told us throughout the day but a couple stuck with me. He explained how the 1980s development of the bear-proof rubbish bin had been a pivotal moment in the history of human vs bear relations and led to an improved dynamic such that there are now fewer bear attacks and the bear population has increased threefold. One area in Canada, only now trying to evolve to use these bins, has found bears are adapting to the changed regime by breaking into houses with 47 recent bear break-ins. Ross explained it took two generations of bears to evolve before the situation improved around Jasper.
We also learned that Jasper started as a railway town but tourism has overtaken as the main industry. The population is around 4,000 but swells in Summer with around 25,000 visitors. The railways were also responsible for the building of, what are now known as, the Fairmont hotels at Jasper and Lake Louise. These hotels were originally built to encourage tourism but by different railway companies. The National Rail company wanted their hotel to blend in with the surrounding and hence the lodge style hotel at Jasper. Whereas the Canadian Pacific railway company wanted a grand hotel and hence the chateau style building at Lake Louise.
Mark was also disappointed to learn that black bears are prevalent over on the east coast, in the New England area, where we head to next after we finish this loop of BC / Alberta. He had been hoping it was just this region that would give him pause from his cycling. I think we might end up having to buy some bear spray.
Much of the day was spent taking in the beautiful views along the Maligne Valley system and looking out for wildlife; we spotted two black bears, some big horned goats and a bald eagle so most of the photos today are scenery. It was a great outing though and one I would recommend if you’re ever in Jasper.
We arrived home at around 4 pm and Mark went out for a bike ride back to Maligne Canyon. We had an early dinner at Earls as we had a big drive ahead of us tomorrow with 4+ hrs from Jasper to Banff along the picturesque Icefields Parkway. We only wished that there was an Earls equivalent in Australia; we could that see an Earls at the Bondi Pavilion would thrive!
