CANADA - ALBERTA - JASPER PARK – Jasper Skytram - Whistlers Mountain

CANADA - ALBERTA - JASPER PARK – Jasper Skytram (*****)

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A tourist attraction you cannot miss - Jasper Skytram. The lower station is located just 7 km away from Jasper, by the Whistlers Road.
Since you can choose a departure hour while buying a ticket, there are no queues. The flight, in a cable car containing up to 26 people, lasts 7,5 minutes and takes you up 1005 m at a speed of 6 metres per second. This is just the beginning of the adventure.

Once you reach the upper station, situated 2263 m above sea level, you will find an unspeakable view and a promise of more discoveries during the walk on the Whistlers Mountain. The Summit Trail (1,2 km long - 5A) runs through alpine vegetation. Although the trail is easy, you need to be equipped with a proper footwear. One can also stroll along established paths to several view points below the summit. The Whistlers Trail (6,6 km long) is prepared for tourists looking for more challenging activities.

When you get to the moutaintop you will find red chairs (deployed in different Canadian Parks in most suprising locations) and an astonishing scenery of lakes fed with glacier water (Patricia Lake, Pyramid Lake, Lac Beauvert, Lake Annette i Lake Edith), Athabasca River or six mountain ranges. The snowi is also guaranteed, even in summer.

There are toilets, restaurant and rest areas in the upper station. Established trails are available for famlies with children and elderly people. Nevertheless you cannot forget to take warm clothes and mountain boots with you.

Experts from Jasper Planetarium arrange periodically – depending on weather conditions – night flights to the upper station combined with stargazing through telescopes as well as telescope adventures by the lower station during the day.

Information leaflet, which is available at the skytram stations, shows pictures of animals met on the mountain. We came across an animal not mentioned there. Do you know this animal? Please write in comments below.

CANADA – ALBERTA – JASPER PARK – Athabasca Falls

CANADA – ALBERTA – JASPER PARK – Athabasca Falls (*****)

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This rainbow miracle of nature is the first – among here described - stop on the journey from Jasper to Banff.

The parking lot is located on the right side of the road, 30 km from Jasper and 262 km from Banff (behind Athabasca Pass). A short walk along established easy trails takes about 30 minutes. It gives a great opportunity to admire the waterfall from different perspectives and learn about it’s past. An abandoned river bed with the flight of stairs cut in it makes unearthly impression. Standing on one of the view decks, visitors can observe a rainbow, feel the cold miss or even get a little bit wet.

The waterfall is 23 m high. It’s strength comes from a huge capacity of water falling down from the quartzite cliff. Seasonably changing colours makes it beautiful. In summer, when Athabasca River is strengthened by melting glaciers from Columbia Icefield, water runs milky white. It is caused by fine silt (known as rock flour, which also colours famous glacial lakes such as Lake Luise), the product of grinding down mountains for thousands of years. In other seasons, when the river is fed by run-off, rainwater or snowmelt and only the smallest of particles remain in the water (the ones that reflect green and blue parts of the light spectrum), the waterfall seems icy blue.

History of the Athabasca Falls starts 10.000 years ago, when Athabasca Valley Glacier inched over rocks, shearing off chunks of hard quartzite, this way creating a cliff. A stream flowing underneath glacier started forming the canyon. In the course of time, the glacier receded. A stream turned into the Athabasca River. Nowadays water pressure carves out quartzite cliff a few millimeters a year.

In the canyon – shaded from sunlight and covered by constant mist – the temperature can be up to 10  ̊C colder than the one on the trail. That is why the alpine-like environment in the canyon resembles  Whistlers summit in Jasper.  It still remains a mystery, where a bull trout - the only one native fish found above the falls – came from and how it managed to cross over the barrier of the cliff.

Established trails are easily accessible and very popular. Nevertheless the waterfall is worth seeing on the way from Jasper to Banff.

Alberta can be admired in Vancouver (!) during a short flight over Canada.