Jasper Park Lodge--High End Camp for Grown-Ups

From the Athabasca Glacier (Columbia Icefields) to the town of Jasper is 103 KM which goes very quickly (just over an hour) and we arrived at the Jasper Park Lodge (JPL as it is called) a bit over 5 hours-with all the stops and sightseeing- after leaving Lake Louise. The Jasper Park Lodge is beautifully situated across the Athabasca River about 5 Km from the town.. We are greeted by a large family of Elk grazing over dinner at about 5:00 PM on the front lawn of the lodge. The staff is very friendly and our room seems to be a deluxe version of a camp bunk—but what the heck we are living in the wilderness and when in Rome, do as the ....Jasperians do. We eat dinner in the deluxe buffet-hyped by the concierge as the best of the best from all their dining rooms—well, it was pretty awful, dried out main dishes, tasteless food-BUT the salads and dessert were quite excellent as was the chocolate creation the chef prepared as we complained about the quality of the food.

One of the “fun”things we did was to “hike” around the extensive grounds of JPL and walked about 3.5 miles through the forest and visited 3 different lakes (Trifulio, Annette and Edith), all beautifully emerald in color, some with beautiful mountain backdrops and one next to a Quicksand Pit and having its own sand mini-beach. We really enjoyed it very much. At night we had dinner at a restaurant called Tekarra Lodge and really loved it—so much so that we made reservations for the next night. The food was terrific, service excellent and ambiance perfect for the location. We went into downtown Jasper for ice cream dessert and found this old fashioned country store run by a Korean named Dong who just retired from the Saskatchewan government and his wife “grandma”. We had a really nice discussion. On the way back to JPL we encountered several Elk families out for a stroll outside of downtown.

After breakfast we decided to take a journey to Lake Maligne (about 45 minutes from Jasper Lodge) and were richly rewarded. We stopped off about half way up at Medicine Lake—a huge lake that “disappears” in the winter and provided great photos. As we drove toward Lake Maligne, we spotted a large moose-very exciting, even more so after we parked and saw a mother moose and her baby cross the road in front of us. Lake Maligne is likely beautiful, however it was still frozen so while pretty, it is likely gorgeous when thawed. On the way back we encountered more elk, caribou and one long horned mountain sheep—really very exciting and unusual for we city slickers. We spent the afternoon cruising downtown Jasper, lots of time in an Indian native art shop.