Skyline, Jasper National Park, AB | 46km, 1526m
We drove into Jasper Friday evening after a morning of slow packing and dilly dallying. Jasper National Park was empty of cars and we rolled into Jasper for a quiet evening in town. My first thought was “wow, what a hidden gem! we should live here.” Little did I know, it was only quiet and empty because it was 10pm. Definitely not a hidden gem!
We started running/ hiking Skyline at 8am. We planned to start at 6am but instead ended up leaving our campsite in town at 6:30am. Turns out you don’t need to start that early unless you’re worried about weather. We luckily had the perfect weather window.
Jake, Justin and I started running in a dense and chilly fog.
The fog very quickly cleared up and sunscreen became an essential.
The majority of the day was spent in the alpine! We found that between Rockwall and the Juan de Fuca, Skyline was the most runnable trail. We ended up fast hiking the majority of the hills anyway to enjoy the views.
The steepest climb of the day was called “The Notch”. It went up from Curator Lake, where we discovered that there is a backcountry cabin - Shovel Pass Backcountry Cabin! Horses take regular trips up to the cabin to keep it stocked.
The notch.
The notch was essentially the last climb (other than a small one at the end). The remainder of the trail run weaved through the high alpine and back down into the trees.
There were plenty of places along the trail to refill water.
The last 8km of the run were a bit miserable. We made our way down a seemingly endless forest service road.
Then we were done! We enjoyed a tasty beer at Jasper Brewing, spent a night at camp, had some waffles for breakfast, and started the drive home.
We drove the touristy way home.
Took a stop at Athabasca Glacier. It was crazy to see the buses that are driven onto the glacier and to see how far the glacier has receded.
We took a little walk up to Peyto Lake. It was very busy and very touristy, but who am I to judge… I was there too!
We stopped at Hemlock Grove Boardwalk in Glacier National Park. Then we took the familiar ferry across Arrow Lake back home.
