Jasper National Park Journal Travel Guide by DH Wall - Alberta, Canada

Are you ready to take great landscape photos during your Canadian Rockies vacation?

DH Wall — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:13:27 +0000

The Canadian Rockies.

Home of great landscapes.

Are you ready?

One of the best things about taking photos in the Canadian Rockies is that you don’t have to have a fancy camera or be an expert photographer to return home with several frame-worthy photographs.

But if you like taking photos, learning more about photography could make a big difference in your end result.

Whether you’re using a point-and-shoot digital camera or an SLR, knowing how to use your camera can mean much better Canadian Rockies vacation photos.

On my next trip to the Canadian Rockies, my goal is to spend part of the time taking pictures, so watching YouTube videos about photography has been a hobby lately.

Here’s some good videos about photography that apply to outdoor and landscape photography.

To start with, here’s Rick Sammon’s top 10 digital photography tips – really good photography tips you can use throughout the Canadian Rockies, regardless of your skill level.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this next video, Tracey Clark provides some great tips on outdoor photography – good stuff to know while taking pictures of the spectacular mountains of the Rockies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this video, Michael talks about some of the nuts and bolts of taking landscape photos and provides some tips that may make a difference between a crystal clear photo and a blurry one.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t forget to bring your camera while hiking. Marc Silber, while in Yosemite, provides tips about hiking and photography useful wherever you hike.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And if you’re visiting in winter or maybe taking photos of the glaciers in the summer, these somewhat advanced tips from Gavin Hoey about photography in the snow should be useful.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Videos of Marmots in Jasper and Banff National Park

DH Wall — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:06:14 +0000

Hoary marmots are cool. Literally. They live all year round in the cool weather of the Canadian Rockies, hibernating over half the year during the colder months.

With a little luck, you may see them in various places in Jasper National Park and the Canadian Rockies.

They’re sometimes seen on mountain sides amongst the rocks or nibbling on grasses and plants. They’ll even eat ice for water.

In Jasper National Park, keep a look out on Whistlers Mountain after getting dropped of at the top terminal and hiking up the Jasper Tramway. Throughout the Canadian Rockies, hikers have seen hoary marmots on trails like the Skyline Trail that provide the right habitat for the furry animal.

Here’s a few videos from YouTube from travelers who have seen hoary marmots in Jasper National Park and Banff National Park.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Marmots are also called “whistlers” because of the sounds they make. Listen to this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bear Hill Lodge Hotel in Jasper National Park

DH Wall — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:19:08 +0000

Jasper National Park has several good places to get a night’s sleep within the borders of Canada’s largest national park.

Conveniently located Bear Hill Lodge in Jasper National Park falls into the category of mid-priced hotels in Jasper National Park with the hotel’s price per night in the $200 range during the peak months and a little more reasonable before mid-June and after mid-September.

The family-owned hotel is located at 100 Bonhomme Street in Jasper and a nice walk to the downtown area where the Jasper Information Centre and restaurants are.

A review of Bear Hill Lodge’s features reveals a lot of nice add-ons not found at other Jasper hotels. The lodge offers several quality cottage cabin accommodations, some with kitchenettes, some with multiple beds, and some rooms even have a wood or gas fireplace. To me, the fireplace would be fun in the winter or on a cool rainy day when you just want to rest and read a book.

The Lodge also offers hotels rooms above its main lodge building. These rooms are nicely appointed as well with a kitchenette, gas fireplace and a balcony.

Cabins at Bear Hill Lodge, Jasper National Park

Bear Hill Lodge entrance

The Bear Hill Lodge offers a continental breakfast in its breakfast room. Price is included with some rooms, but $10.00 for other rooms. Fill up and then head off for your Jasper National Park adventure.

At the end of the day (or anytime between 8:30 AM and 10 PM), soak at Bear Hill Lodge’s spa. It has a hot tub and sauna.

Some other things to note:

The nightly room rental rates are for 2 people only and Bear Hill Lodge currently has a fee of $20.00 per night for each additional person over age 15.

View Larger Map

For more information, see the hotel’s website.

Camping in Jasper National Park in 2010

DH Wall — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:31:02 +0000

Want to go camping in Jasper National Park in 2010?

Tent camping or RV camping. Jasper offers both.

If you like planning early to ensure you get to stay at the campground you want, you can use the campground reservation system from Parks Canada. The camping registration system officially starts taking reservations on April 1 for Jasper National Parks campgrounds:

Pocohantas campground
Wabasso campground
Wapiti campground
Whisters campground

The reservations for campgrounds in Jasper National Park are done through the online reservation system here.

While the campgrounds disallow registering for a specific campsite within a campground, registering early ensures you’ll at least have a spot available to you upon arrival. This is good piece of mind as some of the campgrounds can get full during the peak season of July and August.

Happy camping!

Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience – What exactly is it?

DH Wall — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:49:35 +0000

The Columbia Icefield Snowcoach ride, or, as Brewster’s brochure calls it, the “Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience”, is a 90-minute ride on the biggest super-bus you’ve ever seen to one of the most easy-to-get-to glaciers in the world.

It is amongst the most popular activities in Jasper National Park – and many Banff National Park visitors drive up for the Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience too.

The bus is called a “Snocoach”. Only a handful of them are in existence. These monster buses tread delicately over the snow while the driver tells you the story of the Athabasca Glacier on the Columbia Icefield.

The views are awe-inspiring.

The tour starts with a shuttle bus driving from the Icefield Centre to the edge of the Athabasca Glacier where you do a quick transfer to a Snocoach bus. The Snocoach bus rides on the snow, driving a long way up and stopping at a look-out area.

Everyone gets out of the bus at the look-out area, looks around in awe, and most people touch the snow. The air feels so clean up here.

Some people even try to drink some of the blue glacial melt water.

After hanging out on the glacier, everyone gets back in the bus and heads back.

It’s a relaxing, comfortable drive. It’s an attraction that anyone can do. It’s a way to experience a glacier, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And, like just about everywhere in Jasper and Banff, the views are incredible. Pictures cannot do it justice.

Here’s the official video from Brewster, the company operating the tour.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy the glacier experience!

While at the Icefield Centre (where you get on the shuttle to the Snocoach), you can take a time-out and view the glacier exhibit to learn about glaciers, the climate and the Canadian Rockies environment. Afterward, have a meal at one of the two restaurants in the Icefield Centre.

Maligne Canyon Ice Walk on your ‘Before you die’ list?

DH Wall — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:46:22 +0000

Melanie Haiken wrote a really nice article about doing the Maligne Canyon Ice Walk, one of the unique winter activities in Jasper National Park.

The article, entitled “Add This to the ‘Before You Die’ List: The Maligne Canyon Ice Walk” provides a synopsis of the experience of walking on a frozen river within a canyon and amongst frozen waterfalls. But is it really worthy of a “Before you die” list?

Melanie argues that there’s no place like this in North America. She goes on to say:

“It’s as if nature put on an ice carving show deep in a canyon with nothing but the foxes, elk and bighorn sheep to witness it. There are waterfalls of ice 30 feet high, icicles taller than I am, and caves walled by solid ice that drips bit by bit from rock overhangs.”

Seems like reason enough to me to add it to the list! In fact, the Maligne Canyon Ice Walk is one of the winter activities on the Ultimate List of Jasper National Park Activities.

If you’re looking for something to do in the winter in the Canadian Rockies, a guided ice walk tour should be on your list. Check out Melanie’s full article here – along with several photos of her ice walk experience.

After reading Melanie’s article, come back to JasperJournal.com to learn more about the Maligne Canyon Ice Walk and other Jasper National Park outdoor activities.

One of the added bonuses of visiting the park in the winter is the low price of hotels in Jasper National Park during the off-season and the opportunity to go skiing or snowboarding at Marmot Basin as part of your visit.

Ultimate List of Jasper National Park Activities

DH Wall — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:57:59 +0000

You’re in the right place for learning about things to do in Jasper National Park.

This is the Ultimate List of Jasper National Park Activities in 6 categories:

Must-Do Activities – Several activities stand above the rest as the most popular activities
Sports and Outdoor Activities – Most people visit Jasper to partake in outdoor activities, be it a day hike or getting out on the water
Winter Activities – The park is a whole new world during winter when Marmot Basin ski area opens
Wildlife and Nature Activities – Jasper National Park offers a mixture of wildlife spotting and nature appreciation activities in its montane, sub-alpine and alpine zones
Town of Jasper Activities – The town of Jasper (Jasper townsite as its often called) is a small municipality in the center of Jasper National Park. Most of the Jasper hotels, dining and all of the residential area are in Jasper townsite.
Nightlife Activities – Jasper nightlife is fairly tame, probably because everyone is exhausted from all of the daytime activities, but there are things to do

Must-Do Activities

Columbia Icefield Snocoach
Jasper Tramway
Maligne Lake boat ride to Spirit Island
Day hiking – Hike to Mt Edith Cavell or the Maligne Canyon hike
Miette Hot Springs
Scenic driving on the Icefield Parkway, Highway 16, Pyramid Lake Road, and Maligne Lake Road
Athabasca Falls and Sunwapta Falls waterfalls

Sports and Outdoors Activities

Camping – Sitting by the campfire, hoping the bears stay home
Hiking
Backpacking
Walking
Standing on top of Whistlers Mountain after riding Jasper Tramway
Do an activity with Friends of Jasper – guided walks, bird watching, volunteer projects
Riding the Snocoach on Columbia Icefield
Swimming at your hotel
Swimming in a lake – brrrrrr, cold
Swimming in the Olympic-sized pool at Jasper Aquatic Centre
Swimming and soaking at Miette Hot Springs
Boat ride at Maligne Lake
White-water rafting
Canoeing
Kayaking
Biking
Fishing
Photography
Golfing at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge
Horseback riding
Helicopter rides and heli-hiking
Mountain climbing

Winter Activities in Jasper National Park

Skiing at Marmot Basin
Snowboarding at Marmot Basin
Cross-country skiing
Snowshoeing
Ice walk in Maligne Canyon in winter
Ice climbing
Dog sledding
Ice skating

Wildlife and Nature Activities

Wildlife watching
- Bighorn sheep
- Caribou
- Mountain goats
- Marmots
- Pika
- Elk
- Bears
- Deer
- Coyotes
- Wolves
- Squirrels
- Birds
- Fish
Learning about wildlife and nature
- Guided talks
Looking at plants and trees
Admiring at glaciers and mountains and rivers and lakes
- Athabasca Falls waterfall
- Sunwapta Falls waterfall
- Maligne River
- Athabasca River
- Athabasca Glacier, Angel Glacier and other smaller glaciers
- Guided ice walks on the Athabasca Glacier
- Viewing Mt Robson from afar (the huge Mt Robson is located in Mt Robson Provincial Park and viewable from Jasper)
- Mt Edith Cavell
- Pyramid Mountain

Town of Jasper Activities

Gather lots of free information at the Jasper Information Centre
Shop on Connaught Drive, Patricia St and vicinity
Walk around and get familiar with town
Find a place to eat
Shop for food so you can pack a lunch
Grab a morning coffee
Grab a morning coffee and some lunch food at a place like Truffles and Trout in the Jasper Marketplace on Patricia Street
Visit the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum
Hang-out at your hotel and relax
Take a look at the Jasper train station and old locomotive next to it
Watch the trains go by at Jasper train station
Ride the train to and from Jasper
Arrange for guided activities or buy tickets ahead of time for attractions
Read a book like Kathy and Craig Copeland’s Done in a Day Jasper: The 10 Premier Hikes to get prepared for day hiking
Rent a bike at Freewheel Cycle
Watch a movie at Chaba Theatre

Nightlife Activities

Dining at a casual restaurant
Dining at a fancy restaurant
Dining in your car
Dining by your campfire
Not dining because a bear just stole your food and therefore, running, quickly, away from said bear.
Hanging out at a pub with the locals, having a beer while telling stories of the bear that stole your food

Have any other ideas? Let’s make this the ultimate Jasper activities list.

Fairmont Jasper Park Lodges prices back in the day

DH Wall — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:17:36 +0000

If you’ve looked at the prices for staying at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, you know this is an exclusive resort hotel.

Since its early days in the 1920s, the lodge has catered to an upper-class demographic.

So it goes.

A page from a 1948 Jasper National Park brochure (which I’ve referred to previously here) has a page showing the rates for Jasper Park Lodge back in the day.

Jasper Park Lodge single and double rooms for $10, $20 and under $30 a day. Imagine that.

Canadian National's Jasper National Park 1948 brochure cover

Take a look at this interactive picture of the prices for Jasper Park Lodge in 1948. You can zoom up and move around. You’ll notice the rooms included the “American Plan” back then (meaning that the meals were included, full board).

Even back in 1948, some of the fancier cabins seemed quite exclusively priced. Various sources say that back in 1948, the average new car cost between $1,000 and $1,500, and gasoline was 20 cents per gallon range.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a nice facility once you add-in the location, the lake (Lac Beauvert), the heated swimming pool, next-door golf course and such. But it is out of most people’s price range.

For us mortals, there are plenty of hotels in Jasper National Park to chose from. For those who prefer a real outdoor experience, Jasper has lots of camping and RVing options too.

And if you cannot stay at Jasper Park Lodge, at least think about having a meal there. The lodge has several dining options, from quick and easy to fancy and sophisticated.

Staying at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Hotel/Resort in Jasper National Park

DH Wall — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:39:08 +0000

The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge holds an iconic status amongst hotels in Jasper National Park. This upscale resort hotel has been an institution since the early days.

Starting with 8 cabins in 1922, the resort’s expansion over the years means it can today claim 446 rooms, an award winning world-class golf course, and a whole lot of activities and amenities on the grounds. I think the location (on Lac Beauvert) and facilities are why the prices are so high. If you click the link above to see the reviews, a lot of people like the Lodge, but some complain it is overpriced.

During the summer, the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge is the park’s most expensive hotel. During winter ski season, you can enjoy Jasper’s most exclusive hotel at much lower rates – and take a free shuttle to Marmot Basin Ski Area to boot.

If Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge doesn’t fit into your travel budget (as it doesn’t mine), there are plenty of other Jasper National Park hotels to chose from. Nearby Hinton, Alberta, a short drive from the eastern border of Jasper also has several hotels at reasonable prices.

What to wear to Jasper National Park – 1948 advice

DH Wall — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:45:13 +0000

Wondering what to wear to Jasper National Park?

A promotional magazine from 1948 will give some clues.

A page from a 1948 Jasper National Park promotional magazine put out by the Canadian National railways suggests all sorts of clothing options, which are still valid today even though trends change.

The magazine centers around the Jasper Park Lodge (now the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge), which at the time, was a property owned by Canadian National Railways.

Canadian National's Jasper National Park 1948 brochure cover

The “What to Wear” page covers what to wear “At the Lodge” (meaning the Jasper Park Lodge), explaining:

“Let your taste be your guide. Wear what you like, but you’ll find sports and lounging clothes best for relaxation.”

Use the zoom tool below to zoom in and see the details.

It also gives suggestions for motoring (driving a car), riding (horseback riding), golf, day time wear and evening wear.

The suggestion for what to wear during the day time seems to say it all:

“…depends on the weather and what you’re doing. Suit yourself….Just be comfortable.”

My advice: bring layers. During summer, mid-afternoon at a low altitude may be warm enough for short-sleeves and even shorts on some days. Most of the time, something warmer will be more comfortable. As the magazine page says for evening wear, “come prepared for cool mountain evenings.”