It’s 06.00 and I must be mad.
Stepping out of my cabin and keeping an eye out for wildlife I set off. No bears. No elk. Good.
Brrrr…it’s September in Jasper, and that means you never really know what weather to expect. The last time I was here was almost exactly two years ago, when snow was falling in thick flurries.
But this time, packing my suitcase full of jumpers was a mistake. It’s been 30⁰C and today it’s just the morning air that’s fresh.
As I make my way to the lake in a bathrobe, the stars – plenty of them – are still out. With a large group of us staying at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, someone had the bright idea of a dawn dip in the property’s glacial lake, and I signed up.
That’s something I’m slightly regretting as an instructor from the hotel teaches us some breathing techniques we’ll need to cope with the cold. I lower myself off the dock and, for 20 seconds or so, it’s not nice. I remember those breathing tips as my water shoes make contact with the pebbles on the bottom of the lake.
But then something curious happens. I get used to it. And a few minutes in, I begin to enjoy it. Bobbing around, watching the sun begin to highlight the individual gullies, grooves and glaciers atop the surrounding mountains, I decide I love it. And my reward for sticking it out? A few seconds in a lakeside sauna that I’m informed by a staff member was left by the production crew of The Bachelor, which was filmed at Jasper Park Lodge in 2024.
Stepping into the Lodge again is a little déjà vu for me. When I first came to Jasper – over 15 years ago, on my very first trip to Canada – I stayed here.
Seeing stars
Back then, pulling up in its long meandering driveway, passing lakes and woodland, making it to the main lodge with its mix of taxidermy and colossal rock fireplaces, and seeing its log cabins dotted around the lake, I remember thinking ‘Gosh, I’m in Dirty Dancing’.
So picturesque is the setting, so ‘classic’ the mountain escape décor, that something about this place did, and still does, feel filmic. At least to me.
Built in 1922, the railway brought the hotel’s first wave of tourists to this mountain playground in the Canadian Rockies and it’s easy to see why visitors have been coming here ever since.
Is there a prettier spot in the world to tee off from? The golf course at Jasper Park Lodge celebrates a centenary this year. It too hugs the neon blue waters of the lake, and is surrounded by the peaks.
In winter, sport shifts to the slopes. Marmot Basin is just 20 minutes out of town, with over 90 named runs suitable for all skill levels.
Today, people come for the stars too. Nightly, on my way back to the cabin, I start a habit of taking a photo of the sky with the lake and mountains in the foreground, my camera picking out seemingly endless constellations. With minimal light pollution and at over 11,000 km2, Jasper National Park is the second largest dark sky preserve in the world. Each October, Jasper holds a Dark Sky Festival with concerts under the stars, drone light shows and gazing with astronomy experts. Jasper Planetarium – located at Jasper Park Lodge itself – also offers stargazing alongside films of the stars and northern lights.
Every now and again, the lights make an appearance for real in these parts.
Some things haven’t changed: this is still a popular stop off for those arriving from VIA Rail’s The Canadian train or the Rocky Mountaineer. Jasper is also a start point and terminus for those driving the legendary Icefield’s Parkway – a 227 km stretch of mountain road that connects the town with Lake Louise.
Some things have changed. Looking out across the lake at the charred tree trunks that stand starkly like spent match sticks, it’s sobering to see how close the hotel was to being lost in the wildfires in July 2024.
Walking around the centre of this close-knit community it’s easy at first to feel like things are normal. Jasper is open for business and as a town reliant on tourism, it needs visitors to rebuild.
New growth
The flames largely spared Jasper’s main hub of stores, bars, restaurants, and historic buildings. Yet, turn a corner of main drags such as Connaught Drive or Patricia Street and you see it.
On the southern edge of town, whole streets of homes were destroyed and families displaced. Building work is underway but for those residents, it will take time to recover and rebuild.
Yet across the over 32,000 hectares of affected parkland nature is already repairing. I join Jasper Food Tours and their guide, Nicolas Gosselin, on a Summer Wildfire Peak-Nic Tour, one of a couple of new wildfire tours that have launched since the park reopened.
We take the Old Fort Point Trail, steadily climbing to a lookout over the town. The whole way, we’re walking through blackened stumps, fallen timber made charcoal – a lost forest.
But Nicolas raises several points that put an alternative spin on things. Before the fire, the forest floor was barren. With wildfires – something needed in nature to keep forests healthy – ‘overdue’ for so long, the dense tree canopy was starving the forest floor. Now, green shoots are emerging, and animals are returning. The trees will too in time.
And secondly, with whole swatches of forest gone, the area is transformed.
Walking paths that would have previously afforded views of tree trunks now offer views for miles, to landmarks and geological features previously completely buried in the trees. It’s a revelation.
We make it to the viewpoint, though I’m not ashamed to admit that the last climb was tough. I’m blaming the altitude: Jasper town itself is over 1000m above sea level.
But it’s worth it. The milky blue threads of the Athabasca River fan out like lace across a bed of ground glacial gravel, some illuminated silver in the late afternoon light. Floating gently down the river, inflatable rafts take now-soaked-through passengers back to shore. Though the section of the river that runs through town is calm, there’s plenty of white water nearby. Tours at varying classes of rapids – usually Class II or III – across both the Athabasca and Sunwap-ta rivers feature plenty of splashes, bumps, and waves.
Back at the lodge, I relax in a renovated Bayview Junior Suite, with a lounge area and patio looking out on the lake.
A week after I leave, the hotel closes for a major renovation. Due for completion in Spring 2026, it will see the main lodge updated and transformed – no taxidermy I’m told – some refreshed guest rooms, a renovated pool and a new dining venue. The renderings show a chicer, but still mountain-cosy facility.
To end the trip, it’s time for a do-over. Last time snow hampered my attempt to sail on Maligne Lake, the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies, but today, the sun is out.
I’ve been here before, but it’s still a jaw-on-the-floor moment to turn the corner into the “Hall of the Gods”. The cathedral-like, glacier-capped mountains that provide a backdrop for the sacred, tree clustered spit of land, Spirit Island, command awe.
Fire may have temporarily impacted life here but Jasper’s beauty remains as enticing and timeless as before.
