Overview
Safeguarding some of western Canada's most beautiful wilderness, Jasper National Park is rugged, awe-inspiring, and ultimately, welcoming. In its midst, where the Athabasca and Miette rivers meet, lies the townsite of Jasper. It, like the resort towns of Banff and Lake Louise, owes its existence to the railroad. Although settlers had lived here since the early 1800s (including Jasper Hawes, a fur-trade clerk for whom the town was named), it wasn't until the railroad came in 1911 that the town was established. Now serving as the base for Canada's largest national park, Jasper is quiet, laid-back, and ideal for leisurely sojourns. It's still tourist-driven, and trains and buses regularly deliver visitors to its pristine, glacier-fed lakes, wooded trails and snow-covered peaks. They come to ski, to hike, to fish, and to observe; and end up taking away not just photographs, but a renewed spirit as well.
