Holiday in Jasper

What makes Jasper special as a destination?

Jasper is the wild, untouched soul of the Canadian Rocky Mountains — larger, quieter, and wilder than its famous neighbor Banff, with a wilderness that still looks as it did thousands of years ago. Jasper National Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies at 10,878 square kilometers and hosts the largest Dark Sky Preserve in the world. The Columbia Icefield is the largest icefield in the Rocky Mountains: 325 square kilometers of glacial ice, from which meltwater flows into three oceans — the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Arctic Ocean. The Athabasca Glacier is accessible by Ice Explorer (all-terrain special bus), and the Glacier Skywalk — a glass observation platform 280 meters above the canyon — offers dizzying views. Maligne Lake is Jasper's jewel: The largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies stretches 22 kilometers between snow-capped peaks. Spirit Island, a tiny, wooded island at the southern end of the lake, accessible only by boat, is one of Canada's most photographed spots and a sacred place for the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. Maligne Canyon is a 50-meter deep limestone gorge carved by the Maligne River over millennia: Six bridges span the gorge, and in winter, the waterfalls transform into bizarre ice sculptures that can be admired during guided Icewalk tours from the depths of the canyon. Jasper's Dark Sky Preserve is the largest in the world: In October, the Dark Sky Festival celebrates the absence of light pollution with telescope nights, lectures, and guided stargazing. The Milky Way shines here with a clarity that is hardly possible in Europe.