11/06/2025 by photosbyhank

The Road to Jasper

It was another more cloud than sun day on Sunday, May 18th. We were going to check out the Jasper townsite and a bit of the surrounding area today.

Jasper is often our go to destination, but after the wildfire last year, we decided we’d stay somewhere else to keep out of the way. One of the first images we saw come out of the fire scene was the singed sign at Wicked Cup and a totally destroyed building behind it. Wicked Cup was our go to place for tea/coffee and breakfast as it was always good and the service was top notch so there was a level of sadness involved with a visit into Jasper.

I had planned to make a stop or two along the way and the first place I wanted to go was Rearguard Falls. We had stopped there in the fall back in 2023 and I wanted to see it in the spring. The parking lot was jammed full so we continued on our way.

Mount Robson was only partly peeking out of the clouds so we felt there was no point in stopping.

When we got to Overlander Falls, the parking lot was almost empty, so we pulled in there to check it out. Like the hike down to Rearguard Falls, it’s a pretty easy walk. It looks to be a bigger falls than Rearguard is.

We hung around for a bit listening to the roar of the water and were looking at leaving when we saw some kayakers pulling in to check out the route through the falls and rapids.

They obviously agreed on a plan of attack as they were soon heading down the falls.

Having made it safely down, they didn’t take all that long to regroup, shoot the rapids, and continue downriver.

Lynda liked this tree stump and wanted here photo take with it. I’m always happy to take photos of my bride as she never used to like me taking them. It never stopped me, but she didn’t like it.

The downside of walking down to see the falls, is it’s pretty much uphill all the way back to the truck. But, it wasn’t too strenuous a hike and soon we were back on our way into Jasper.

When we got to town, we drove around a bit to see what was gone and what was still standing. I felt a little sad remembering places that used to be, but knowing no one died in the fire helped put it into perspective.

We parked and wandered around a bit to find a new cafe so Lynda could have a good London Fog. We had heard Andromeda Coffee was pretty good, so we decided to check it out. And it was very good. We’ll have to try it again on our next visit.

We checked out more of the streets while on foot and decided to try someplace different for lunch and ended up at Estío Jasper. The place was hopping and we each decided on one of the grilled cheese sandwiches and sat out on the patio to enjoy the weather.

After enjoying our lunch, we decided we’d go over to check out the Pine Bungalows and Jasper Park Lodge areas to see how they had done.

Before we did that though, I got into the crazy lineup at the only gas station standing to top up my fuel. It is beyond ridiculous that in the 9 months since the fire, no re-construction of any building has commenced. Even crazier is the fact a 2nd gas station hasn’t opened, or that the town hasn’t been allowed to put in tanks with a cardlock to at least make it easier for tour buses to fuel up. I would hate to be stuck in the line up once full blown summer season is upon us. It would be entertaining as hell to sit and watch though.

I was in and out of the gas station quicker than expected and soon we were heading over to the Pine Bungalows. We had stayed there back in 2021 and liked it so we wanted to see if it survived the fire unscathed; it had.

We made our way over to the Jasper Park Lodge and there were a lot of burned trees on the way in but it looked to us that any damaged buildings were along the golf course and not in the main lodge area itself. The trees however, were crispy for as far as the eye could see.

We pulled into the Lake Annette parking lot and walked down to the lake.

There were a couple of scraggly looking cow elk hanging out near the lake and I don’t think she was all that happy to have her photo taken. I was a long ways away and had to crop this in to see the expression on her face.

We backtracked a bit and drove up the Maligne Lake Road to the Lookout. The fire made it a whole lot easier to see the valley from the lookout. For many years, you looked through the gaps in the trees to see anything.

Now that we could see through the forest, it was surprising to see how close Maligne Canyon is to the road and parking lot.

It was getting to be time to head back for supper so we didn’t drive very far up the road before we turned around to head to BC.

We hit some rain on and off on the drive and as we got close to the cabin, Lynda pointed out that the 1 cloud in the area looked like rain so we should go to town for supper. I really didn’t want to cook over the fire either so I wasn’t about to argue with her. (It didn’t appear to have rained when we got back.)

We went back to Caribou Grill to have a drink and dessert like we told the waiter we would.

We actually had a meal too but kept it small to make it possible to have dessert.

Lynda had seen an Icetini listed on their online menu but not the printed menu. When she asked about it, they told us it was coming off the menu as Ice Wine has getting more expensive, it soon wouldn’t be worth making, but they could make her one. It consists of ice wine, vodka and frozen grapes. When the bartender brought it over, she explained that was the very last ounce of ice wine in the place. Lynda really enjoyed it and when the waitress asked if she wanted another drink, she said; “No, because you can’t make me another one of these.” It made me smile.

We enjoyed our supper and shared the Caribou Coupé. It was as good as advertised but I didn’t take any photos of it.

We headed back to the cabin for our last night of vacation.

We didn’t even have a fire before bed, just a nice cup of tea.

26/07/2024 by photosbyhank

Jasper

It’s been 2 days since a massive wild fire roared through part of the town of Jasper, Alberta. It’s looking like about 30% of the buildings were destroyed, but luckily, none of the infrastructure ones. Updates have been slow in coming so I don’t know if the Pines Bungalow survived or not. I know some of the buildings across the river at the Japer Park Lodge were destroyed and some damaged.

My news cast broke the story that the fire had entered the town around 6:40 pm and it wasn’t long before I saw a photo that hurt my heart to see; The Maligne Lodge and Wicked Cup were fully engulfed in flames and it was obvious that there would be nothing left to save. As they are on the south west edge of town, all I could imagine was the fire roaring through, leaving nothing but smoking remains behind. Thankfully, this wasn’t to be the case. Firefighters managed to save more than they lost. A most impressive feat considering flames were reported to be over 100 meters high and moving forward at approximately 15 meters per minute, pushed by up to 100 kilometer per hour winds.

While I am happiest outside and I can generally find happiness in most of the places I’ve visited, Jasper is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. Even with everything being either uphill or downhill, I always found the pace of life around Jasper to be relaxing. More importantly, my bride finds it relaxing and that makes me happy as relaxing isn’t exactly her strong suit. I can re-visit places in Jasper over and over and never get bored, be it, a point of interest or restaurant I like, and there are many of those.

Wicked Cup has become our go to place for breakfast and or tea/coffee over the past few years. The staff changes enough that we didn’t actually get to know them all that well, but we never had a bad experience there.

Outdoor breakfast at Wicked Cup, August 2021

Looking at the map of where the fire has gone, it appears that both the Whistler and Wapiti campgrounds are probably gone. With no official update out though, I can’t be sure of that. Lynda and I have camped at Wapiti a time or two over the years. Once Adam came along, we’ve stayed in an oTENTic at Whistler and that changed our camping habits for a few years.

The lap of luxury at site #5 back in August of 2014

While it’s not exactly inexpensive to go to Jasper, it’s not really all that bad as a long weekend holiday and Lynda and I have made those happen for getaways to relax and recharge over the years.

We’ve stayed at different hotels over the years and have never really had a bad experience. None of them were the Ritz, but I’ve never stayed their so I don’t know if I’m missing out on anything.

Looking over the Tonquin Inn in August of 2021.

I’ve always preferred Japer to Banff even though my first job after graduating from SAIT back in 1992 saw me as the camp photographer at the Banff National Army Cadet Camp by the base of Cascade Mountain. I would come out of the barracks every morning, look up at the mountain across the road and exclaim; “That is the coolest thing ever.” It never got old once in the 8 weeks I was there. The 17 straight days of rain wasn’t a fun time, lol. Even back then, the townsite of Banff was just so busy with people everywhere. Jasper by comparison, feels like Mayberry, and I never watched The Andy Griffith show.

Once, we had to wait in line for a venue, well twice if you count the hour plus traffic line up for construction on the way to the Jasper SkyTram. The wait for the tram was about the same, but 10 years have passed and in multiple trips since, the wait for anything has been pretty much nonexistent.

While Japer isn’t exactly a metropolis, it isn’t hard to find good food. Some places like Wicked Cup and Evil Dave’s Grill have become go to favorites, while a place like L&W is a comfortable old favorite.

I mentioned earlier that I found my time in Jasper relaxing, even when my bride drags me out before midnight to go look at the Perseids Meteor Shower up at Pyramid Lake. I got a few photos I was happy with and we even got some with the northern lights. Even with getting back to the hotel after 2 am, that night was totally worth the lack of sleep.

Lynda and I made our last trip to Jasper last October for her birthday. We stayed in Hinton to reduce costs and accepted the extra hours drive to get to places. We attended Symphony Under the Stars at The Jasper Park Lodge and afterwards, drove up to Maligne Lake hoping to get some night sky photos. It was a bit surreal being the only ones at a major tourist attraction but so much fun. Even with having to drive all the way back to Hinton afterwards. Somehow though, morning came super early but fatigue wasn’t an issue. I’m going with the mountain air as the reason.

The Jasper Park Lodge in October of 2023.

While watching the news tonight, I heard Jasper’s mayor say he’d lost his home in the fire and it was the only one on the block to be lost. It was his 2nd birthday when his family moved in, 67 years ago. People often say their leaders are out of touch with the masses. I believe that as life shattering as this is for everyone affected by the fire, having someone in exactly the same boat will benefit the town in the long run. The problem will be that it probably will be a long run.

I have no doubt that Jasper will rebuild. I have no doubt that in some ways, it will be better than ever. It’s just never going to be the same for many of us.

I was hoping to get to Jasper next month for holidays but even if I can find a place to stay, I don’t know if I could handle seeing the destruction. It’s been bad enough seeing all the dead trees from the pine beetle invasion. Charred remains don’t sound any better.

08/11/2014 by photosbyhank

Jasper 2014, day three

Woke up to a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. We enjoyed our complimentary breakfast and headed off to go to the Jasper Skytram. We soon ran smack dab into the height of tourist/construction season.

All we could see was traffic for miles. We had noticed the construction the day before but there had been virtually no waiting. We sat here for about 15 minutes and then moved up about 30 car lengths for our next “rest.”

The line kept growing behind us too. After about an hour the douchbag in the red car pulled out and passed a bunch of us. I was so hoping there would be a cop around to see that, but no. And I was equally disappointed when I didn’t see that piece of crap all smashed up along the highway when we finally cleared the construction. Our plan of heading up the mountain late in the morning was pushed back by the hour and a half we sat in traffic.

As we approached the parking area at the Skytram it was pretty busy and there were a lot of people walking around. We parked and headed towards the line-up. The line moved pretty quickly and we got to the front in no time at all. Once there however, we were told we would board in an hour and a half. So it took me 4 hours to get from my hotel to the top of the mountain. Looks like we aren’t doing much today. We hung around in the sun at the departure area waiting for our “flight.”

When it was finally our turn we crowded into the tram and set off up the mountain and were at the top of the ride in no time at all.

Once we got there and went outside into the sunshine we could feel a cold wind blowing but it was warmer than it had been so far on our trip. We walked around the short board walk and looked up the trail towards the top of the mountain when Lynda said, “Just so you know, I’m not going up there.” She was still feeling the effects of our previous day’s hike and my hips were sore from the trek so it didn’t break my heart not to climb higher. Years and years ago my dad took us kids up there so I have seen it, but Adam still hasn’t been. I guess that’s an excuse to go back.

So, we took that opportunity to have some lunch. While lunch was good, it did feel a bit like going to dine in a fancy restaurant; had to wait to get in and paid more than it was really worth. But it was nice to eat out as a family.

After we ate we went back out to wander around the boardwalk a bit before heading down.

We took a few photos and headed back down.

I liked the way the trees “rushed up” at is as we descended the mountain.

This is almost at the bottom and the end of the line.

We headed on east towards the Miette Hot Springs. The road there is all twisty and narrow – I loved the drive. In all our travels to Jasper we have never visited the hot springs. We found out that it is the hottest hot springs in the Canadian Rockies. I didn’t find it too hot to be though so it was all good. I didn’t try the cold pool – I liked being comfortable. We lounged around there for a little over an hour before heading back to Hinton for the night. With that our Jasper vacation was over. Even with all the tourists around it was a very enjoyable and relaxing time.

07/11/2014 by photosbyhank

Jasper 2014, day two

Friday morning dawned windy and cold, not that we noticed so much in the trees of the campground mind you. I have never slept so well camping as I did in that Yurt. Other than the usual middle of the night bathroom visit I slept through till 9:30 am. It was just so quiet and comfy that the rising sun didn’t wake us up. Check out is 11 am but we were hard pressed to get out by noon. It was fabulous. I’m pretty sure that is going to be how we camp from now on.

It’s so quiet with all the neighbours gone.

We drove through the town of Jasper and headed over to the Jasper Park Lodge. We drove into the lodge and then headed over to Lake Edith and Lake Annette. The trail to Lake Annette looked inviting so we tried it. It’s only a couple of hundred yards to the lake from the parking lot and we could feel the wind blowing, but when we got to the lake shore it felt like a cold, cold hurricane was blowing.

A windy day at Lake Annette

I’m pretty sure there were whitecaps on the lake, but since my eyes were watering from the wind I couldn’t really tell. The walk to the lake took longer than the time we spent there. Wasn’t much to see with all the cloud cover anyway so we decided to move on.

East to the Snaring River fire road we went.

Lynda and I took this drive and walked up to the lake years ago but she didn’t remember doing that. Once we got to the end of the road I realized that the road was different than the first time we went.

The parking area is different than I remembered and the trail slopes gently down for a couple of hundred yards before making a turn and dropping steeply down to a bridge.

After you cross the bridge it is quite a steep climb up the other side. Once you reach the top it’s a gentle climb as you walk, but it is a constant uphill. Being cloudy and cool out made for nice hiking conditions. Lynda carried here camera bag and never took a single photo. She forgot to bring water even though she always travels with some.

Lynda was getting pretty tired and felt that we saw a lake and that was good enough. I persuaded her to keep going. We walked a few hundred yards more and she gave up and sat down to rest while Adam and I went off to find Celestine Lake. I think we went all of a couple hundred feet and saw this.

Adam and I walked another couple hundred feet and found the lake. Laughing I went back to get Lynda so she you say she made it all the way.

Now it was time to walk the 6.8km and approximately 1000 foot drop back to the truck. Soon Lynda’s lack of water caught up with her as she started to experience leg cramps. We walked slowly and rested often. She said that downhill was harder at that point than uphill. I never take water with me, I know, I know but I just never do so to me it’s no big deal but it was pretty hard on her.

I can almost always find an excuse to stop but since I walk faster than Lynda she often walks ahead and even with doing small projects like the feather I catch up pretty easily.

I stopped a few more times to take some flower photos. Lynda kept a pretty steady pace going albeit a slow one, but steady none the less. I really liked the light I was getting from the cloud cover.

With the bridge in site it was only a kilometer or so back to the parking area.

Lynda was hurting at the end but she did the whole distance and I was so proud of her. I think we’ll have to do some more walking so that will be easier next time. After she go through getting some water into her it was time to head out.

The road in/out is one way each hour as it’s so narrow and twisty. I loved the drive. It was the best part of the driving that day. We headed into Hinton to check into our hotel and get some supper and planned to be back in the park fairly early Saturday morning.