What It’s Like Visiting Jasper In 2026 (With A Mount Robson Side Quest)

Back in 2024, a devastating fire ripped through Jasper National Park. Canada is sadly no stranger to wildfires in the summer months, but this was different. A third of Jasper town was destroyed, and people lost homes, businesses and livelihoods. Nobody was unaffected.

It’s because of this that I wanted to make sure I scheduled in some time to visit the next time I made it over to Canada – to show support for the town, and to spend a couple of nights getting to know it better than I did on a brief camping trip ten years ago.

As you can imagine, competition for accommodation is fierce. The town is small as it is, and I planned to stay in the HI Canada hostel – which is still being rebuilt. So I looked elsewhere to find… not much availability left at all, nearly six months in advance. Needless to say, Jasper was not a cheap part of the trip.

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It is, however, open for business and seems to be thriving. The drive to Maligne Lake is partially through ruin, but the majority wasn’t hit by the fires, thankfully.

That’s not to say it’s not a shocking sight. Most people visiting Jasper will arrive by road (if only we could all afford the Rocky Mountaineer…) via the Icefields Parkway. This spectacular road joins Jasper and Lake Louise for three hours of unbridled scenery of towering mountains and bright blue lakes. It is simply phenomenal.

Sadly, a whopping twenty minutes of the drive is now amongst burned forests. I couldn’t believe it when I checked how close I was to Jasper and realised I was still so far away!

There are also still some areas of Jasper National Park closed off to visitors, such as the Edith Cavell trail which I had really wanted to do, and Maligne Canyon which I had done on my previous visit. (Both will remain closed for 2026, so if you’re looking for an alternative canyon, Mistaya Canyon on the Icefields Parkway is beautiful, or my favourite, Marble Canyon in Kootenay NP!) The popular family-friendly Valley of the Five Lakes Trail had just re-opened before my visit.

Around Jasper town itself, I wouldn’t say there’s a whole heap to do – the Five Lakes trail is probably the best trail close to town. Unfortunately the day I arrived it was raining, so I decided not to do it, and I ran out of time on the rest of my visit, which is a shame as I wanted to report back on how the new trail is. There is also the Jasper mountain gondola which goes up Whistlers mountain.

To me, the real attraction is the actual park. While it may not have quite as many showstoppers as its neighbour Banff, there is plenty to see along the Icefields Parkway, starting with one of the main attractions of the highway, Columbia Icefield.

Stretching north from there, you are invited to stop at some of the best waterfalls in the region. Sunwapta Falls arrives first, followed closely by Athabasca Falls. I opted just to stop at Athabasca this time, which is my favourite of the two.

Arriving in Jasper around 4pm meant I had some time to explore the town itself. I was staying at Tonquin Inn, right at the other end of Jasper to where the fires hit. It’s a little way out; around a 20 minute walk from the centre of town. But that was fine as the rain had virtually stopped, so I popped into a few souvenir shops and earmarked some places for food.

On that front, there are plenty of places to choose from along Connaught Drive, and some highly recommended places along the parallel Patricia Street, such as the Raven Bistro and the Mad Grizzly. Patricia Street has much more character than Connaught Drive, in my opinion!

I already had my sights elsewhere on night one, though – I was staying next to a place called Evil Dave’s! Who can resist a name like that? I certainly can’t. It was already on my list before I’d booked my accommodation.

I was pleased to see the name hadn’t put anyone else off either. When I turned up before 7pm, they didn’t have any availability until 8pm. Zero issue – I just headed back to my room and caught up with a few things online. (One thing on this trip was that I wasn’t very well connected!) However being that this was early in the season and already this busy, I’d recommend booking in advance. It was nice seeing it busy anyway, after everything the town went through.

The food and service were both EXCELLENT. It was fancier than I expected – I imagined some sort of dive bar with a name like that, but it was pretty bougie. My waiter was really lovely and chatty. I ended up having a side of poutine made from goat’s cheese, and holy smokes – it was some of the best poutine I’ve had! In fact, I almost went back again the following night just to get the full portion. It was the one night I really missed having Ash with me, though. It would have been the perfect date night.

The following evening, I didn’t go to the Raven or the Mad Grizzly. I’d had a long but bountiful day out, so I took the lazy option and ate next door to my hotel again, this time at Whiskey Jack. It’s perfectly good though, and their glass-covered terrace offers some great views. It was actually where my hotel recommended breakfast, but I didn’t get to try that.

One other thing to mention, which may surprise you (as it did me): the street art!

Imagine my surprise when I found that last piece by Smug, one of my favourite street artists from Glasgow!

Anyway, that’s about as much as I experienced in the town, but what about the park?

I had one full day, with a cruise on Maligne Lake planned for the afternoon. My plan for the morning? Weather-dependent – if it was a nice day, I’d head out of Jasper National Park altogether and drive to Mount Robson. If not, I’d do the Valley of the Five Lakes trail.

Well we’ve already established that I didn’t do that trail, so when I woke up to bright sunshine and a good forecast, I made a beeline for Mount Robson!

Mount Robson is just an hour’s drive from Jasper town, so it seemed silly not to drop in and finally take the chance to see the largest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

There’s a good visitor centre and an enthusiastic chap on-hand with information. I’d been considering the Kinney Lake hike, but I was going to be tight on time as I’d read mixed reports online about how long it takes, with some recommending up to four hours. When I heard him telling someone that it would take up to three hours, I bit the bullet.

(I will point out that I originally booked my cruise for the morning, and planned Mount Robson for the afternoon, in which case timing wouldn’t have mattered. After a friend said he might join me in Jasper, I swapped my plans to suit him better… and then he didn’t even come in the end! Honestly, I think people just didn’t want to spend time with me in Canada!)

Anyway, it worked out for the best I think, because I got to see Mount Robson in all its glory before it clouded over – literally ten minutes after that pic! So I was quite happy to head off on the hike instead of taking in as much of the view as possible.

Kinney Lake is a really easy forest trail with a small amount of up-and-down before you reach the lake. In total, the whole hike took me two and a half hours, including a 20 minute stop at the lake! Nowhere near the 3.5-4 hour reports I’d read online, but I suppose it depends how far you go along the lake.

In fact, I had time added on by the fact there was an avalanche near the start of the trail, so I had to climb over that, which was the most challenging part of the whole hike. (That’s to say how easy it was, not how difficult the avalanche was!)

Even with the obstacle, this was one of the best effort to reward ratios I’ve ever done!

Along the way, a bright blue river complements the mountain, which at this point was covered in cloud even on a sunny day. Typical mountain weather!

But it’s the lake itself which makes the whole walk worth doing – because it is unbelievable!

The reflections were BEAUTIFUL, and there are several picnic benches dotted along the lakeshore to enjoy your snacks. Perfect!

I am SO glad I decided to do this! It was one of the highlights of my trip.

But I was about to experience another one, in the same day…

Another TWO, in fact. Because as I was driving to Maligne Lake, I spotted a few cars pulled over. Naturally, I had to do the same, just to see what everyone was looking at.

My second most exciting wildlife spot of the trip – a MOOSE!!

(The first, in case you missed it, was a bear walking down the Icefields Parkway towards me before it crossed over right in front of my car!)

Luckily I had left plenty of time in case something like that happened, because you really never know what you’ll get to see on any given journey in Canada.

I’m also glad, because when I turned up at Maligne Lake and loaded my cruise ticket, I realised with horror that it still had the original time on it. A swift visit to the ticket office had it all sorted, but for some reason my amendment hadn’t updated on their system and they had to book me on a later one as my new timeslot was now sold out – if I’d left it any later, I might have been outta luck.

What it meant was that I could grab a cup of tea from the café and sit on the terrace in the sunshine. Not a bad way to while away an extra hour or so, particularly with a resident squirrel causing chaos.

Finally, it was time to board our little boat and head out into the wilderness of Maligne Lake.

This is a great little cruise with information about the surrounding area. The mountains around here are part of the Queen Elizabeth range, named so as a present for the Queen’s coronation. “What do you get someone who has everything?” our guide Kayden joked.

It was her first cruise of the season, and although she was obviously going on a script, she was hilariously deadpan, especially when she clearly didn’t think much of the jokes! It wasn’t all silly though – there was a lot of information about the discovery of Maligne Lake and the effort that went into it by Mary Schäffer, and the history of the First Nations in the area, including leader of the Stoney Nakoda people, Samson Beaver, who helped Mary in her discovery.

We were also taught how to say “thank you” in the local First Nations language – iss-nee-yiss. We all said it to the crew and to the guide as we disembarked.

And on a more sobering note, I got chatting to the captain, Cameron, on the way back about his experience of the fires. His housemates weren’t really taking it seriously when the alarm was first sounded, he said. Within hours, he looked out of their window and yelled that it was time to get out. They left with barely any of their belongings, hoping that they’d be able to come back soon, if at all. It was weeks later before they were able to get home, with no idea what they were coming back to.

He was absolutely thrilled to be back on the boats, and it was something he certainly wasn’t taking for granted.

We finally arrived at Spirit Island, where we were given 15 minutes to explore. On the surface, that seemed paltry – but there’s actually only one small path looping up to a viewpoint and back down along the shore. I walked it twice, just to get as many photos as possible!

The funny thing about Spirit Island is that it’s not actually an island because it’s connected to the peninsula. You also can’t go onto Spirit Island itself as it’s sacred. One good thing about that is nobody will ever be in your photos! But it’s nice to see tradition respected and upheld.

Also, would you believe it – the first people I spoke to were from Scotland, less than 10 minutes down the road from us! Not the first time that had happened on this trip, either.

After we’d got our fill of photos, it was back on the boat for a few final facts as we headed back, and then our guide (and captain) happily chatted to everyone and answered any questions. It was a really personable trip, which made it better than just a boat trip.

The cruise isn’t cheap (it’s about £70pp) so I did deliberate over doing it, but it really is one of those must-do things in Jasper so I’m really glad I ended up deciding to go for it even though it ended up being by myself.

I had one more stop on the 50 minute drive back to Jasper, and that was another lake.

Ten years ago, I’d been blown away by Medicine Lake because I hadn’t even heard of it, while Maligne Lake felt like a huge let down in bad weather. This time, I’d had such an incredible time at Maligne that I wasn’t too enamoured by Medicine Lake. Funny how it can be so different in varying conditions.

I love the mountains around Medicine Lake though. They are some of the most striking in the Rockies, in my opinion. Just look at this one which I definitely did not photograph while driving:

There is just something very magical and raw about Jasper. I adore Banff, and nowhere in the world will ever beat places like Moraine Lake and Peyto Lake for me. But short of doing backcountry camping, nowhere in Banff feels remote or off-beat. Everywhere feels accessible, and has the crowds to match. There’s a definite civilisation that wards off the feeling of true wilderness.

Jasper feels much more wild – the fact that there was so much more of Maligne Lake beyond Spirit Island that hardly anyone visits, the level of wildlife I saw in Jasper compared to anywhere else in Canada, and in the end, the vast scale of this area was really brought home by the level of destruction wrought by the 2024 wildfires.

The sheer magnitude of this was unfathomable to me even after I’d visited and seen it for myself.

But Jasper is well and truly back, and thriving as a destination once more. And if one full day within an hour’s drive can be this good? Imagine what it’ll be like when everything has fully re-opened. For now, it’s very much worth visiting for what IS open. They’ll be happy to have you.

Read more about western Canada:
⭐ Vancouver & The Canadian Rockies: An Epic 10 Day Road Trip Itinerary
⭐ Road Tripping The Icefields Parkway In Autumn
⭐ A Spectacular Glacier Scenic Flight Over Whistler, Canada
⭐ My Top 10 Things To Do In Vancouver
⭐ Squamish, And Why I Prefer It To Whistler