Jasper National Park Overview

A three-hour drive north of Banff but embracing a similar enormous chunk of the Canadian Rockies, Jasper is the largest national park in Canada, and the most northerly. Compared to Banff, it's a less traveled collection of salt-and-pepper cathedral peaks and large animals. Rare mammals such as grizzly bears, mountain lions, caribou, and wolverines live in (relatively) large numbers amid the 4,200-square-mile wilderness. Here you'll find emerald lakes, shimmering glaciers, deep canyons, thundering waterfalls, and hot springs.

With all this terrain, visitors can find plenty to do here any time of year. Downhill ski area Marmot Basin, one of the largest cross-country ski areas in Canada, and nearly limitless backcountry and ski-mountaineering opportunities provide plenty of winter sport options. Visitors ice-skate on three of the park's large lakes and take ice-walk tours through the spectacular, frost-encrusted Maligne Canyon. The Icefields Parkway is one of the world's most dramatic roads, running south from the town of Jasper to Lake Louise through the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Some 100 visible glaciers, including the mighty Athabasca and the Columbia Icefield, from which water flows into three different oceans, are visible along this 142-mile stretch.