Favorite Canadian Mountain Vacation Spots: Stay in Jasper National Park

Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, is, without a doubt, one of the top ten vacation destinations for visitors to Canada. Located high in the Canadian Rockies, Jasper National Park was established in 1907, as a wildlife sanctuary to the many species that call it home, including some of North America's rarest animals, with healthy populations of grizzly bears, moose, caribou and wolves.

The largest, and wildest of the mountain parks, Jasper National Park's 10,878 square kilometres includes some of the most-photographed and picturesque mountain wilderness in the world, with a superb backcountry (hiking) trail system as well as the world famous Columbia Icefields, one of the only Icefields in the world accessible by road.

The town of Jasper is every bit as photogenic as it appears in the popular images found in tourist brochures and ad campaigns. The winding streets are filled with charming cafes, gift shops, and stores of almost every description.

The main street features quaintly gabled and colorfully decorated shops, a lovely park, and a recently refurbished Visitor Information Center. Directly across the street, the stone, train station beckons any adventuresome rail-traveler to hop aboard for a scenic ride through the mountains, and all way down the Fraser Canyon to downtown Vancouver, in neighboring British Columbia.

The toll booths at the entrance to the park are staffed with courteous and knowledgeable Parks Canada employees who have become adept at efficiently handling the long line-ups and sometimes cranky visitors. They greet everyone cheerfully, answering questions with with unfailing grace and aplomb.

I remember seeing very old, black and white photographs of my father's aunt, my Great Aunt Sadie, standing in front of a rustic looking log chalet, in a well-trimmed and spacious clearing against a backdrop of huge evergreen trees. She looked very trim and proper - her high-button shoes peeped out below an ankle-length, dark colored dress topped by a white, pinafore apron that was almost as long as the dress.

According to family history, Great Uncle Tom was responsible for creating the original Rose Gardens at the then-new Jasper Park Lodge, and Aunt Sadie worked there as a housekeeper. I recall being quite fascinated by her stories and many souvenirs of those days, including a favorite and well-used black walnut nut cracker carved in the shape of a standing bear.

Every time we crunched a nut between his jaws, we would ask for a retelling of the story of the day a black bear decided to take up residence in one of the cottages. At Uncle Tom's urging, Aunt Sadie kept a rifle on hand for just such an occurrence, but fortunately for Brother Bear, he was rather shy, and easily convinced to leave by dint of much noise-making.

We stayed in a KOA Campground this visit. Over the years, I have passed through Jasper more times than I care to remember on my way to and from various places, but this is the first time I have actually camped there. We did stay in a bed and breakfast once when I was quite young, but I don't recall ever stopping there for more than breakfast, a lunch or two, and many photographs of the park's wild residents.

We children were forbidden to leave the car and approach the wildlife, but I recall that Dad once got fairly close to a very large deer. He tended to be quite careful, though, and I never remember him getting out to do anything as daft as feeding a bear to secure a photo op. We did see many other tourists doing just that in the unenlightened days before we turned those lovely creatures into dangerous scavengers.

Our campground this trip was a 45 minute drive from the park gates, but did afford a lovely, if distant, view of the mountains. The campground was one of the best run I have ever experienced, being clean, well laid out, and offering such amenities as clean, warm bathrooms, showers with ample hot water, laundry facilities, central camp kitchens with picnic tables, cooking facilities, and sinks with running water for clean-up.

As well, the friendly staff provided a pancake breakfast on the long weekend, which was perfect for getting us up and on the road in record time.

The only drawback to our mountain valley location was the wind, which blew pretty constantly. It was very windy one night, and we awoke many times, convinced we were about to lose our lodgings to the next gust. the tent did blow over, but not while we were in it. We returned, tired and hungry from a day's adventures and were informed that our tent was one of 4 or 5 that had fallen victim to the winds. Fortunately, it took only minutes to re-erect the tent, and the winds were mercifully soft for the rest of our stay.

The folks at the campsite called this "Sleeping Man Mountain". His giant profile dominated the valley.

© 2010, Text and Photographs by Elle Fredine, All rights reserved.