Feature Destinations
Jasper, Alberta
Alberta | Canada | North America
JASPER ‘s small-town feel comes as a relief after the razzmatazz of Banff: its streets still have the windswept, open look of a frontier town and, though the mountains don’t ring it with quite the same majesty as Banff, you’ll probably feel the town better suits its wild surroundings.
** JASPER TOWNSITE**
Situated at the confluence of the Miette and Athabasca rivers, its core centres around just two streets: Connaught Drive , which contains the bus and train terminal, restaurants, motels and park information centre, and - a block to the west - the parallel Patricia Street , lined with more shops, restaurants and the odd hotel. The rest of the central grid consists of homely little houses and the fixtures of small-town life: the post office, library, school and public swimming pool. Apart from the Yellowhead Museum & Archives at 400 Pyramid Rd, with its fur trade and railroad displays (mid-May to early Sept daily 10am-9pm; early Sept to Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov to mid-May Thurs-Sun 10am-5pm; $3 or donation; tel 852-3013) and a cable car , nothing here even pretends to be a tourist attraction; this is a place to sleep, eat and stock up. If you’re interested in getting to know a little more about the town or park from the locals, contact the Friends of Jasper National Park (tel 852-4767), who offer guided walks between July and August, or pick up Jasper: A Walk in the Past from local bookshops. If you’re still itching for something to do and have a car, a lot of people head 58km northeast of town for a dip in Miette Hot Springs .
Though Jasper doesn’t get as crowded as Banff, it still receives around three million visitors annually, so accommodation, especially in summer, can be extremely tight, though there are numerous B&B options. You are also especially stuck if you don’t have a vehicle; trailheads and the best scenery are a long way from downtown. Bikes can be rented at several places and intermittent shuttle services and organized tours can run you out of town to Maligne Lake , to various trailheads and to some of the more obvious attractions.
The presence of the Athabasca and other rivers around Jasper makes the town a focus of white-water and other rafting trips . If the idea of water appeals, but in much gentler context, the town’s Aquatic Centre at 401 Pyramid Lake Rd (tel 852-3663) is popular, and provides a large swimming pool, whirlpool, wading pool, steam room and showers. You can rent towels and costumes if you’ve come unprepared.
Other tours and activities can be accessed through several operators around town, amongst whom the most wide-ranging is Rocky Mountain Unlimited , 414 Connaught Drive (tel 852-4056, www.sundogtours.com ), who run their own tours but also act as a one-stop booking agent for a huge range of tours, including seeing the park by helicopter ($149), a five-hour bus and hiking tour of the Maligne Valley ($169) or white-water rafting ($79 and up).
The town’s other big operator is Maligne Tours at 627 Patricia St (tel 852-3370, fax 852-3405, www.malignelake.com ) - though note that nowhere on the shopfront at this address does it actually say the company’s name. Among other things, the company runs boat cruises on Maligne Lake, guided hiking and fishing trips, canoe rentals and rafting excursions.
All manner of short or strenuous and generally cheap guided hiking or wildlife tours are widely available: contact the Chamber of Commerce for details of the other various operators. For the free walking tours run by the Friends of Jasper National Park in the summer, contact the park visitor centre. If you need to rent hiking , fishing and other equipment , the best bet is On-Line Sport & Tackle, 600 Patricia St (tel 852-3630) or the Totem Ski Shop, 406 Patricia St (tel 852-3078).
You can rent bikes in town from On-Line Sport & Tackle ($6 an hour, $18 a day or from Freewheel Cycles at 618 Patricia St (same rates, plus full-suspension models at $9/$27/$36 for 24 hours; tel 852-3898, www.freewheeljasper.com ). The latter is a good place for all things connected with bikes, including repairs and spares. Drop in and ask for their Mountain Biking Trail Guide , a summary of trails to suit all types of riders. On-Line offer a one-way rental with all necesary kit from Jasper to Banff if you’re up to riding the length of the Icefields Parkway. Out of town you can rent bikes at the Jasper International Youth Hostel ; at Beauvert Boat & Cycles, which is at the Jasper Park Lodge on the shore of Lac Beauvert ($8 an hour, $20 for 4hr or $30 a day for bikes; tel 852-5708); and at Patricia Lake Bungalows, 4.8km northwest of town on Pyramid Lake Road (from $6 an hour, $18 a half-day and $24 a day). For in-line skates rental (rollerblades), make for Source for Sports, 406 Patricia St (from $4 an hour, $12 a day; tel 852-3654).
If you want fishing tours, tackle for rent or just free advice if you’re fishing alone, On-Line Sport & Tackle is again the operator to go for: it has trips to Maligne Lake and Talbot Lake for trout and various other lake and river-fishing destinations. a full day’s (8hr) fishing costs $289, $189 if there are two of you; a half-day costs $249/$149. It’ll rent you tackle, too - boots and waders from $30 a day, spin rod and reel ($15), fly-rod and reel ($25) and nets ($5). The company also organizes rafting and horse-riding tours, rents rowboats ($40 daily, $25 for a half-day after 3pm) and canoes (same rates), and sells and hires a wide range of camping gear . Currie’s Guiding, 414 Connaught Drive (tel 852-5650, www.curriesguiding.com ), offer similar trips on the rivers and over twenty lakes, with fly-fishing lessons also available. Golf on a highly rated eighteen-hole course - “Number one in Canada” according to Score Magazine - is available at the Jasper Park Lodge (green fees $44-95, cheaper twilight fees available; tel 852-6090). You can rent clubs and carts.
Horse-riding enthusiasts should contact Pyramid Stables, 4km from Jasper on Pyramid Lake Road (tel 852-3562), who run day-treks and one-, two- and three-hour trips (from $25/$43/$65; full-day rides $125) around Patrician and Pyramid lakes. Ridgeline Riders at Maligne Tours, 627 Patricia St (tel 852-3370, www.malignelake.com ) offer a ride above the tree line at Maligne Lake to the Bald Hills Fire Lookout at 2134m with great views of the lake (3hr 30min; $55). Skyline Trail Rides (tel 852-4215) at Jasper Park Lodge have a more varied programme which includes a one-hour ride to Lake Annette ($25), ninety-minute rides along the Athabasca River ($33), two-hour “Valley View” treks ($35) and four-hour rides to Maligne Canyon ($70). They can also organize overnight trips and anything up to 21-day expeditions using a variety of backcountry lodges.