Jasper AB, I
A couple of weeks after we left Jasper, wildfires ravaged the park and an evacuation order was issued. If you’d like to support the rebuilding of this precious area, donate directly to the Jasper Fire Caring Community Fund.
Our next leg of our Alberta tour was Jasper National Park. On our drive from Lake Louise, we passed a wild bear on the highway which made for an exciting start to the trip!
Posing with our rental car along the Icefields Parkway
Our halfway stop was the Toe of the Athabasca Glacier. This short trek took us on a journey from where the glacier once reached in the late 1800s, with markers showing its recession up until today. It was interesting to contemplate the changes over our own lifetimes! We took some photos and observed other tourists on a guided walk across the icefield.
We continued our journey to our accommodation, Overlander Mountain Lodge, which sits just outside the park and a 40-minute drive from the town of Jasper. We were assigned a pet-friendly Miette room, in a log cabin motel-style setup. For larger groups, you can book an entire cabin. The lodge has a standard pet policy and a few hiking trails on the property to take your pooch for their morning/evening excursions. We booked dinner at the restaurant with a window seat over the landscape. The food was good quality but small portions and took a while to arrive. Breakfast was similar, but there is complimentary coffee in the lobby if that’s all you want. Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the lodge.
We began our first full day in Jasper with a visit to Maligne Canyon, the deepest canyon in the Rockies, reaching depths of over 50m at some points. There is a large parking lot and visitor centre at the canyon. The trail incorporates 6 bridges, and you can do as little as one or two, or all six. I was awestruck by the force of the waterfall at bridge 1, and you can observe the full depth from bridge 2. During the hike, we observed interesting features like the log piles washed up by the river, chockstones and water emerging from the underground cave system. We went as far as the 5th bridge, by which point the river had widened out, and took a slightly different route on our return journey to give us views from a higher perspective. After the uphill walk back, we had a welcome rest at the Wilderness Kitchen. It’s a counter service setup and dogs are allowed to walk through the inside to get to the patio. The food was good but overpriced. Next to the café is the gift shop, and it even stocks some doggy items. Unfortunately, this building was destroyed by the 2024 wildfires.
We continued to Jasper town and spent some time exploring the gift shops (most are dog-friendly, unless noted in the window) and refreshments at Estio’s dog-friendly patio. Then we met at the Two Brothers Totem Pole for our afternoon adventure - a scenic cruise down the Athabasca River with Jasper Raft Tours. The bus took us to the launch site, about a 20-minute drive south along the Icefields Parkway. Here, we got fitted out with life jackets, Rita included, and met our boat guide. This was a special dog-friendly tour and there was a family with two other dogs on board our raft. We sat at opposite ends in case of any squabbles. Rita was made to feel very welcome.
We spent just over an hour on the water. Our guide explained how the fine silt creates the vivid blue of the water, and pointed out features along the way, from whirlpool eddies to an island where Marilyn Monroe was filmed doing her laundry in The River of No Return. The ride was mostly calm and peaceful, but we were taken over rapids and whirlpools and got fairly splashed! It was all fun. Rita enjoyed the cruise, was happy to watch the scenery go by and didn’t mind getting wet. A photographer caught our photo at the end.
For dinner, we went to Jasper Pizza Place. They have a rooftop patio but dogs are only allowed on the streetside one. The pizza was divine. I chose a custom wood-fired with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, and Emma had a pan-fried BBQ chicken. Rita happily snoozed under the table after her busy day, but did have free refills of her water.
