It was time to do laundry and get out of the van for a few days, so we booked an AirBNB for 5 nights in Hinton, which is about 30 minutes from the border of Jasper national park (Rooms in the town of Jasper were crazy expensive or booked). I did a day trip into Jasper from Hinton to do the Sulphur Skyline Trail followed by a soak in Miette Hot Springs. Then I went down to Jasper to grab a campsite before the labor day holiday weekend (they do labor day in Canada too). I went back and picked up Christine 2 days later–she had been enjoying the lovely sunsets in Hinton. Jasper has several smaller campgrounds that are ‘first come first served’, so if you arrive around 10am you can get a great spot.
I loved Jasper National Park. Despite one of the days being very hot and smokey, I was able to do several amazing hikes (my favorite was the Edith Cavell Meadows Trail) and some great mountain bike riding. The impressive Athabasca Falls was near our campground too. Christine did the 1.5 hour Maligne Lake Boat Trip, which would have been much better without the heavy smoke that day, while I did a bike ride.
I’ve been getting more into biking trails, and the ride to Lower Fryatt Campground was perfect for my skill level. There were several groups of cyclists who overnighted there in a great little campground with a big pile of free firewood and an outhouse. This is the first time I’ve seen a backcountry campground specifically targeted to mountain bikers. Is this common? Quite cool!
The town of Jasper is very cute, and looks like it would be a nice place to live, despite the number of tourists.
The full set of photos for this week are here.
