You made it to the second half of our Canadian adventure! Confused how you got here? Head back to the unofficial “part one” here, and check out everything you want to know about Banff!

Our journey to Jasper from Banff was one for the record books. We had absolutely perfect weather and clear blue skies the entire day. To check out our stops on this full-day drive, head over to our Icefields Parkway Guide. We were lucky to have such a clear day for this drive north because unfortunately, the clouds and rain rolled in for the rest of our trip. Don’t get discouraged though! This guide is still packed with goodies. We had an incredible time in Jasper and did not let the dreariness stop us. Our only sadness was not being about to see the many peaks and skyline in the distance. When you go, send us some sunny pics!

To give you a little teaser of our day getting to Jasper, here are the highlights:

We drove straight to our first official stop at Num-Ti-Jah Lodge to hike Bow Glacier Falls. We got a little lost here… so we spent a bit more time than originally planned, but the out-and-back hike was Luke’s favorite of the trip.
Today we FINALLY got to see the famous Peyto Lake, the photo that kick-started this entire trip. While sure, the crowds are annoying and inconsiderate at best, the view from the lookout is worth it.
Out last major stop (with many pull-offs in between) was at the Athabasca Glacier. If you want to feel small and question everything about our impact on this world - stop here. The information presented about the shrinking size of this glacier is chilling, and every climate changer denier should be required to visit here. While it was not as traditionally beautiful as other stops, it was worth the quick visit.

Lodging in Jasper

We absolutely loved our accommodations in Jasper and can’t sing enough praise. We stayed at the Sunwapta Falls Rocky Mountain Lodge and had our little cabin-style king at the back of the property. The lodge is right on the side of the parkway and while it does serve as a pit-stop for tour guides, we were never there during the middle of the day when they were using the main space. Our room was PEAK cabin rustic chic. We had a beautiful stone fireplace and a comfy king bed to spread out on. The bathroom was old school and honestly just added to the charm. Every night we had someone bring firewood and get the fire started for us to enjoy. I had bought a bottle of red wine in Canmore and we popped it open here and drank it out of the signature hotel coffee mugs. I was in heaven. I even bought one of those mugs to bring home to remind myself of how at ease I felt in that space. Every time I see it in our cabinet I can’t help but give myself a little hug. We also ate a few meals here as dining is extremely limited in this part of the park. We ate dinner on our night of arrival and were pleased with the options. We then had breakfast to-go one morning and breakfast in the dining room on our last day. The omelettes were outrageously large and I have no shame in admitting that I ate the entire thing plus all of my home fries. When in the wilderness, eat like a bear prepping for hibernation!

Day 4 (if you are still counting): Evening at Sunwapta Falls

As you know by now, this day was chock full of hiking and Icefields Parkway scenery. After our dinner at the lodge, we set out to find the perfect sunset location. We captured our finest sunrise photo, so it was only natural to capture sunset. We scouted out a few lakes, Buck Lake and Honeymoon Lake. Buck Lake was a big no, and became *uck (you know the word) Lake for the rest of trip. It was muddy and buggy and not worth the hassle. We had little hope for Honeymoon Lake after our *uck Lake fiasco, but my god were we wrong. Honeymoon Lake was perfectly glassy and reflected the golden trees. A true beauty and worth the quick visit.
Luke loved Honeymoon Lake so much that he planned to return in the evening for some astrophotography (we ended up bailing and didn’t have the urge to wake up later) so we made our way to Sunwapta Falls. A major perk about staying at the lodge is that you can access the falls when all of the tourists have gone home. We decided to camp out here for a great sunset photo over the falls and were initially delighted to see Parks Canada staff ALSO on the bridge with camera equipment. We convinced ourselves we had found the perfect locale and planned to sit there for the next 90 minutes until sunset around 10:30pm. We waited. And waited. And eventually another American couple showed up with some equipment. Well after 90 minutes of waiting, the sky was just getting darker, not pinker, and the Parks Canada staff finally approached us asking what the hell we were doing out so late on the bridge. I admitted our plan, which was met with quite a bit of laughter, and learned that the sky just gets black, there is no beautiful reflection in the clouds at this spot. They were out looking for a specific bird! So our cold and embarrassed behinds headed back to our room to sit by the fire… So warning! Don’t go out looking for a sunset pic at 10pm, you won’t find anything!

Day 5: First Introduction to Jasper

For our first official day in Jasper, it poured. All of our plans were railroaded at first and we had to think quick on our feet. Today we started slow and hoped the rain would dissipate, but mother nature was not having it. We retired the hiking gear and I finally put on some makeup and proper clothing to explore downtown Jasper. Our hotel was about 30min from town and we pit stopped at the Athabasca Pass and spotted our first elk into town!
Jasper is definitely a little older and less polished than Banff. The stores are fewer in number and a little more rundown. This is a working town and kind of gives you a taste of what it really feels like to live here. This is not to say it isn’t lovely, because we enjoyed ourselves here, but plan to spend less time here than downtown Banff. Also know that I would drop everything in a heartbeat to live here.
Our second brewery of the trip was located here, Jasper Brewing, and we loved it so much we visited twice. In fact, it was the only place we ate in Jasper. Our first lunch was filled with ramen and salads and felt like the perfect comfort food for a gloomy day. Here we plotted our next move and decided on visiting the Miette Hot Springs.
While I have no photos of the Miette Hot Springs to show you, it was cheap and enjoyable for a rainy day. We brought our own suits and rented towels for a few dollars. You can rent retro swimsuits here and we got a good laugh at those who chose to wear them. The road up was very windy, and unfortunately very foggy for us, so be careful if this is your rainy day activity. We spent about 90min here and then made our way to a grocery store to buy some dinner to enjoy in our room. The Hot Springs are an hour from Jasper, so plan accordingly. If we had a sunny day, I probably would have skipped them and instead gone swimming at Horseshoe Lake, but flexibility was needed this day and we persisted!

Day 6: Rainbows and Boats and Bears… Oh My!

The sun came out this day! What a joy to see some blue skies again. We had to jam all of our final Jasper activities into this one day and I’ll be damned if we didn’t pass the test with flying colors. With a bit of morning fog still hanging low, we started our day at Athabasca Falls and enjoyed walking through the rocks before tour groups started to arrive. The power of these falls is astounding and you have the opportunity to view them at various cut outs. We spent maybe 30min here and felt like that was plenty of time.
By this point, I was itching to get back into my hiking boots so we started out on the Valley of the Five Lakes in some light rain and were not going to be stopped. These lakes are so crystal clear and you can really customize how long you want to be out on the trail. I go into more detail on our trail guide, but my recommendation would be stick to the shorter trail and save your legs for other activities. We extended our loop and were really deep into the woods with little to look at other than trees and the hills we had to climb…
As we were eating our glamorous lunch of pickles and lunch meat, the sun started to burn through and we immediately drove to the Jasper Skytram. We timed our entrance perfectly. As we arrived at the mountain’s peak, the whisps of clouds started to part and we were rewarded with our first look of the Jasper in the sunlight. I did not book our tickets in advance because I was nervous about the weather, and that worked out great for us. We only had to wait about 20min for our departure time as a group of two.
Our only official tour of the trip was scheduled for this day and we booked the special “Through the Lens” photography tour on Maligne Lake. The road to Maligne Lake was FULL of wildlife and we must have hit the area at feeding time. We saw bears, elk, and a huge moose. After our drive, we just made it to the lake on time and departed with a crew of very serious photographers. My little iPhone stuck out like a sore thumb, but the stories on the cruise were so intriguing. Luke fit in with his fancy new camera and we were off to Spirit Island. Our guide pointed out peaks and camera lens were clicking a mile a minute. But the most underrated part of this trip - the silence. I wanted a less crowded, older group for this tour and we hit the jackpot. There was so much room to move around and everyone was so considerate. Once we arrived at Spirit Island, we had the whole island to ourselves. Another huge perk. We were the last boat of the day and got extra time to snap photos and explore. Spirit Island is a very spiritual place for many, so the silence here felt powerful. I was able to really soak in the beauty and again, shed some tears. Apparently Canada has turned me into a blubbering mess. Who knew? Luke also got extra time to set up his shots without anywhere to be and our only task was waiting for the sun to hit the island just right. A perfect end to our time in Jasper. When we got back to the dock, we also were able to explore the shoreline without any crowds and slowly meander back towards Maligne Canyon and Jasper with plenty of stops for wildlife. We even spotted the most spectacular rainbow in our rearview over the water. Dream. Life.

Day 7: Reverse, Reverse. Back to Canmore

Waking up on our last day in the Rockies was depressing. The weather was gloomy and fit our moods well. We filled up on breakfast at the lodge and hit the last few Icefield Parkway highlights (Bridal Veil Falls and Mistaya Canyon) on our way back to Canmore.
I also forced Luke to drive on the Bow Valley Parkway from Lake Louise to Banff one more time for good measure. This little diversion was worth it as we saw a momma grizzly bear and her cubs playing in the grass. Parks Canada was there to shoo us along, but our brief few seconds watching these great bears roll around are still with me. Our lunch spot even brought some excitement with trains passing by as we finished off the pickles and pork rinds left in our cooler.
We chose Canmore for our last night because we had an early morning departure to get back to Calgary. We stayed at the Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge and it met our needs as a place to rest one final time. Once we unloaded our bags here, we immediately headed over to The Grizzly Paw Brewing Co. to round out our final brewery. The space is brand new and gorgeous. We stayed for a flight and appetizers before our final dinner at the Iron Goat.

And that's it folks! A very full seven days in the Canadian Rockies. We have plenty of other reading material if you can't get enough so please check out our other resources as you plan your trip. If you end up at any of these spots, please let us know. We'd love to swap stories and reminisce. Happy travels!

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