A Day In The Park: Jasper National Park

The United States is not the only country to host national park units. Canada to the north of us is also home to some spectacular national parks. Jasper National Park in the province of Alberta is one of those park units.

This national park is home to rugged mountains with peaks even higher than those in Banff National Park. You can take a boat tour around a turquoise-hued mountain lake, stand upon a glacier, take a dizzying walk over a clear glass skybridge 919 feet (280 meters) above the Sunwapta Valley floor, view frothy waterfalls, and spend the night in a tent listening to elk bugling.

Jasper National Park is open year-round, so you can enjoy outdoor activities during all four seasons. Visit between June 19-September 7, 2026, and admission to the park is free plus you receive a 25 percent discount on fees for camping and overnight stays. Visit any other time before or after those dates, and you’ll need to pay a park entrance fee.

You have options for getting to Jasper, including making a road trip of it with your own vehicle (like I did), or flying then renting a vehicle from Edmonton (192 miles/370 kilometers), Calgary (256 miles/404 kilometers) or Vancouver (500 miles/805 kilometers). At some point, you’ll drive along the famous Icefields Parkway (93 North), traveling through the heart of the Canadian Rockies and some absolutely spectacular scenery.

If you don’t rent a private vehicle or take a guided tour, you can ride the rails from Vancouver via the Rocky Mountaineer or Canada Rail. You can also use a bus company like SunDog or Red Arrow, each of which depart from major cities to Jasper National Park. 

There are enough outdoor activities to keep you occupied for more than just one day. In addition to the usual (paddling, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, birdwatching, bicycling, stargazing), you can also ice skate, ice climb, kite surf, paraglide, and mountain climb.

If you enjoy photography, this national park is a gold mine of photo ops for both scenery and wildlife.

And speaking of wildlife, Jasper is home to 53 species of animals. Some of the more common sightings are marmots, deer, pikas, ground squirrels, coyotes, moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats. You might get really lucky and spot a black bear, grizzly bear, cougar, or even a wolverine.

If you enjoy birdwatching and/or bird photography, there are 277 species of birds ranging from waterbirds like ducks, to songbirds like warblers and chickadees, to birds of prey including goshawks and owls.

Feel like pitching a tent or parking your RV beneath the stars? There are 13 campgrounds, including a dedicated RV park, oTENTik rentals at one of the campgrounds, and backcountry campsites. What is an oTENTik? It’s a cross between an A-frame cabin and a prospector tent mounted on a raised wooden floor - no set-up required. It goes without saying oTENTiks book quickly, so you’ll need to reserve one far ahead of your intended stay.

For those of you preferring brick-and-mortar accommodations, Jasper townsite and neighboring Miette offer something for every budget, including hostels, cabins, hotels, and splurges such as the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

Unless you are on a guided tour, most visitors see Jasper from their personal vehicle. Saskatchewan River Crossing and Jasper townsite offer fuel for gasoline-powered vehicles and charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs).

You can stock up on groceries, snacks, and water at the above locations as well. Jasper townsite will have more consistent options for groceries.

While visiting Jasper National Park can take up all your time, no matter how long you stay, there are worthwhile side trips to check out as well, including other national parks, such as Yoho, Banff, and Kootenay.

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Road Trippin’ The Canadian Rockies

This past September, I embarked upon a nine-day, 2,000-mile “Last Photo Hurrah For 2023 Road Trip” into the Canadian Rockies to photograph within four national parks: Kootenay, Yoho, Banff, and Jasper. I encountered a mixed bag of weather along with a few other surprises, and expectations sometimes clashed with reality. Nonetheless, my “last hurrah” was still amazing and I returned with great images plus tips for you to apply to your own photography should you choose to road trip into western Canada’s mountainous national parks (or any national park, for that matter).

To read more of this article, head to this page.

First Look At Jasper’s Caribou Conservation Breeding Centre

Behind an electrified fence along a seasonal road in Jasper National Park, a trailblazing Caribou Conservation Breeding Centre is nearing completion despite setbacks from a massive summer wildfire.

The plan is to capture mostly female woodland caribou — 25 to 35 over multiple years — and start producing enough annual calves to bring Jasper's dwindling herds to sustainable levels within a decade.

To read more of this article, head to this page.

Although Jasper is open year-round some places may still remain closed while recovering from the devastation of the 2024 Jasper Wildfire.

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Jasper National Park Emerges From The Ashes Of A Wildfire

In a mountain forest ravaged by fire in Jasper National Park, charred trees stand alongside a few that look like giraffes, their blackened trunks dotted with golden patches. Locals have taken to calling these strange beauties giraffe, cheetah or leopard trees.

Parks Canada wildfire specialists don’t have a name for this and neither apparently do their Canadian Forest Service/Natural Resources Canada colleagues. But they do know that this phenomenon is indicative of the kind of extreme fire behavior seen when the Jasper Wildfire Complex tore through this Alberta park last summer and when the Kenow Wildfire ripped through Waterton Lakes National Park in 2017.

To read more of this article, head to this page.

Revisiting Jasper One Year After The Once-In-A-Century Wildfire

On a bedrock knob overlooking a mountain town in Alberta, I played citizen scientist by putting my smartphone in a holder and taking a photo of the fire-scarred landscape. 

The picture captured Jasper National Park exactly one year after a state of emergency sparked by a historic wildfire was lifted. More poignantly, it captured how the forest is recovering. 

I scanned a QR code to access the photo submission portal and got a grateful message from the RegenReach project thanking me for helping provide regular, standardized imagery of the flourishing understory.

To read more of this article, head to this page.

The Canadian to U.S. Dollar exchange rate varies daily, but as of the date of this article, a Google search informed me the exchange rate is $1 Canadian dollar = $0.73 U.S. If you visit there, it’s a good idea to go ahead and exchange at least a few U.S. dollars to Canadian. If you can, go to a bank for a better exchange rate. Canadian businesses generally accept U.S. dollars, particularly in tourist-heavy or major metropolitan areas, but usually at poor exchange rates. Smaller, local, or rural businesses often do not accept USD. It is highly recommended to use Canadian currency (CAD) or a credit/debit card to avoid unfavorable rates.

Renting a vehicle in Canada? Your odometer will be in kilometers as will the mileage signs throughout the park. Remember to obey the speed limit. If driving in the dark, you might even want to drive slower than the posted speed, so you don’t come upon hidden wildlife unexpectedly jumping into the road.

Traveler’s Choice For: Photography, scenic driving, hiking, seeing glaciers up close