Jasper - Part 2: Wilderness

There are many hostels in the Jasper area, and most are "wilderness hostels" - huts in the woods with only basic ameneties. I decided to spend a day walking to the Maligne Canyon hostel and stay for the night before returning to the main Jasper hostel the following day.

Some time before noon, I set out and walked through the sunshine down the road to the highway. Despite enthusiastic thumbing, none of the passing cars or mobile homes picked me up, so it started and remained a walking day.

I first returned to the place where the rivers meet, to see the confluence in the sunshine.

From there, I wandered through the woods to the nearest bridge and crossed over the Athabasca river to a vast rock known as Old Fort Point. Here, I was surprised to learn that the Athabasca river flows all the way to the Arctic!

Continuing through the woods (along local footpath 7b) I met a park ranger who recognized me from the night before. He advised me that since it was already 2pm, I should probably take the more direct route to the hostel, as there were still another few hours to go. However, I felt I should follow the advice of a fellow Englishman I had met in the hostel, who had told me that the bottom of Maligne canyon was just as worth going to see as the top.

 I decided to take the longer route which cut across through the forest to the Athabasca river and then up the Maligne river.  

Walking up along the Maligne river, it seemed first to be a relatively normal, though picturesque, river rushing through the woods. As I continued, the path wound along at the bottom of the wooded slope at the river's edge, and crossed a number of small streams. Most of the streams, although rushing, seemed to come from nowhere.

These were the springs from which the underground parts of the Maligne river sprung back to the surface. Further up, the river valley narrowed into a rocky canyon that got higher and steeper as I went further up.

As I gradually got further and further up the canyon, more underground streams appeared at the sides, and the amount of water in the visible river got less and less. The canyon got more and more spectacular as I continued upstream.

The canyon also got narrower, and the path crossed it by a series of footbridges. I remembered that I had in my backpack a length of nylon string. Deciding that this was too good an opportunity to miss, I spent some time attaching my camera to the string and lowering it down into the canyon to obtain some rarely seen views of the canyon.

I arrived in the evening at the top of the canyon, where there was no sign of what strange and marvellous formations are so near by. After exploring the area, I eventually found the hostel, which consisted of a small group of cabins in the woods by the river.

The water supply came from a big tank in a shed, and the toilets were outhouses. There were also strict rules about keeping food only in the kitchen cabin, as the area is often home to several bears. According to the warden at the hostel, there were presently six grizzly bears between this hostel and Jasper town. Since wildlife observation forms part of his duties for the National park, he knows every bear and pack of wolves that is in his territory.
Originally from Austria, the warden settled in Jasper in the mid-1980s, after travelling the world. I had to agree with him that Jasper is surely one of the top places to be.