Banff and Jasper Trip, Part 3

Read Part Part 1 and Part 2 first

    The day that I traveled through the Yellowhead pass was also the day that I arrived in Jasper National Park. One of the first things you notice in Jasper National Park is speed limits, which obviously seemed slow to some people just passing through, based on how many people were tailgating me. Of the one or two things that bugged me on my trip, it was people in a rush, rather than enjoying their stay. I can understand being in a rush, but not the bit about giving the people who are out to take things in a little slower a hard time. Onto more interesting aspects of the day though.

    During my stay at Jasper I camped in the Whistlers campground, which is about 2 minutes south of the city of Jasper. After labour day (Sept 6th) Whistlers is the only campground open, so I didn't have a lot of choice, but to be honest that was a good thing beacuse it was a nice campground overall. Staying in a Canadian National Park is not a cheap affair, compared to some other campgrounds, you pay $27 Cdn per night, plus the daily $10 per person park fee. If you want a campfire, it is another $8 for a permit, although you do get unlimited wood. If you go in September, you may very well want to have a fire, because it is cold overnight. While I was there, overnight temperatures were around 3-4ºC. Now onto where I visited on my first day.

Pyramid Lake

    This first photo was taken at Pyramid Lake, which is a short drive north of Jasper, which you have to drive though to access. If you happen to visit this lake, don't bother stopping at the first beach parking lot, the scene is rather uninspiring photographically. That may be been the result of the cloud cover that day, which obscured Pyramid Mountain, but I doubt that. If you drive down the road past the beach parking lot, past a small resort there are two other parking lots at the end of the road. One of which leads to Pyramid Island, and the second to the trails that go around the east side of the lake. I stopped at Pyramid Island, which I think was the highlight of my stop at the lake. I took the first photo in today's post from the bridge that leads to Pyramid Island. On a clear day you have an excellent view of Pyramid Mountain from the Island, although I could only partially see one of the peaks.

Picnic Area on Pyramid Island

    Pyramid Island is not large, it takes only a few minutes to walk around the enter island, but you do get a spectacular view from just about every viewpoint. In the second photo you can see the picnic area on the island. The picnic shelter you can see was built in the 1930's, and has been well maintained by the park staff over the years, for people to enjoy even today.

    Following my visit to Pyramid Lake, I traveled east of Jasper to the Maligne Canyon, which I will talk about on Monday. Part 4