Jasper holds a special place in our hearts. The first time we went to Jasper was almost on a whim; spawning from a desire to see more of the magic that we had barely experienced in the Canadian Rockies. We started in Waterton Lakes and opted to venture a bit further North. I mean, what's another 800ish kilometers after you've already driven almost 1,000? We landed in Jasper without a reservation, maybe without direction and, after some stress, found the perfect lakeside, first-come, first-served, campsite at Waterfowl Lakes.
The entire Park seemed surrounded by looming, snow-crested, misty, castle-like mountains and filled with emerald rivers, dense forest and an abnormal abundance of water: lakes filling entire valleys, massive rivers flowing from wide, white, glacial waterfalls and looming sheets of ice layering the tops of entire mountain ranges.
The valley vista driving North from the Icefields Center - after passing Athabasca Glacier, with waterfalls on both sides - was like nothing we'd ever seen. We descended through the clouds, into and out of torrential rain until we found a dry, cozy, warm home in welcoming Jasper Town. When the sun peaked through we set out to explore raging waterfalls, and deep, dark, carved-rock canyons. This was just the beginning of many visits to this place - a place worth coming back to again and again.