Banff National Park and Lake Louise receive so much attention that not many people really talk about or even know about Jasper National Park. I will admit that I didn’t know about this park until I started to plan out my trip to Alberta.

Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies and is located 4-5 hours north of Banff / Lake Louise. This park is filled with various attractions, easy to moderate hikes, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs, and amazing sights of the Rockies. The other great attraction is the scenic drive from Jasper to Banff via the Icefields Parkway, which is a must-do on its own.

• Getting there: Calgary and Edmonton International airports are the two closest airports. Calgary airport is a ~5 hour drive and Edmonton is ~3.5 hours from Jasper, but Calgary may a better option if you plan to end near Banff.
• Accommodations: If possible, try to book accommodations in Jasper. We ended up staying in Hinton since we booked last minute. It was inconvenient to drive back and forth from Jasper to Hinton, and there isn’t much in Hinton besides large retail and restaurant chains.
• Essentials to bring / prepare: Download offline maps on your smartphone (especially if there are certain areas you want to stop by on the way to Jasper), hiking boots or shoes with good traction (many of the hikes were rocky and muddy), water (we didn’t see any refilling stations at the trail heads).
• Things to see: Here are some of the things on our list for Jasper National Park.
  • Valley of the Five Lakes hike
  • Maligne Canyon
  • Jasper town
  • Medicine Lake
  • Maligne Lake

Day 1: Getting to Jasper

Flew into Calgary and got a late lunch at Peter’s Burger Drive-in, a local spot that was recommended to us. If you want a quick bite and a great simple burger, then stop by Peter’s! We then started our long drive up to our accommodations in Hinton. We took the faster, less scenic route (not the Icelandic Parkway) since it was storming and it was already getting late.

Day 2: Jasper National Park

My friends and I woke up early and drove to Jasper from Hinton. We were already impressed by the scenery from just the drive into the town of Jasper.

Jasper is a small, quaint town surrounded by magnificent mountain ranges. There are various coffee shops (we loved The Other Paw Bakery), restaurants, and the information center for the hikes and tourism.

Jasper National Park has so many different hiking trails that we decided to stop by the Information Center to get some hiking recommendations and a map. However if you already know which trails you want to do, then skip it and drive straight to the trailhead. The local guide recommended we do the popular Valley of the Five Lakes hike. The parking lot is pretty spacious and there are various portable toilets (there aren’t any toilets along the trail). The Valley of the Five Lakes hike has various loop trails – there is a shorter 3 mile loop where you just see the lakes, and a longer 12 mile trail that takes you along the mountains to Wabasso lake.

My friends and I accidentally did part of the 12 mile trail and got to see more of the mountainous terrain. I would recommend doing at least part of the longer trail because it provides a different viewpoint of Jasper.

We ended up going back to the shorter loop and went to explore the other lakes. Tip: go early (the lakes can get pretty crowded during the afternoon) and follow signs for Valley of the Five Lakes since there are other trails.

After the hike, we went back into town for lunch and stumbled upon Jasper Brewing Company. The food was great, especially the steak open sandwich and salads. We then decided to embark on a second hike to the Maligne Canyon, which was also conveniently located on the way back to Hinton. There are multiple starting points and routes; we decided to start from the Fifth Bridge entrance. We hiked and explored the other bridges, canyons, and the “tea house” (but really it was a cafe).

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Day 3: Icefields Parkway Drive

We were researching what we wanted to see in Jasper and multiple sites mentioned the Icefields Parkway drive from Jasper to Banff. We were reading that the drive takes most of the day so we decided to devote our 2nd full day in Jasper to the drive. For more details on the drive, itinerary, and planning, click here.