Jasper and back-and-forth train travel.

We planned our Jasper camping pretty late. Most places were fully booked so we ended up booking Wapiti (1st and 3rd night) and Wabasso (2nd night) campgrounds. Wapiti is 1-1.5 hours walk away from the Jasper train station. Wabasso is 13.5 km away from Wapiti so it would take us at least 3 hours to walk while carrying our heavy badgs, not to mention the fact that we would need to pack everything and set up our tent anew each day. While this was not ideal, we did not really have much choice. To our luck (?), it was raining when we arrived to Jasper, and when we reached Wapiti, the campsite employee told us there were some cancellations due to weather and offered us to rebook our 2nd day at Wabasso to Wapiti, and made sure we have the same campsite at Wapiti every day. Our tent setup at Wapiti campground

The first couple of days, the weather turned out not that bad. It was raining from time to time but the skies were mostly clear, and we were able to explore a few nearby trails. Below is the view from the Old Fort Point. You can see the city of Jasper and the very train station we came from!

View of the city of Jasper from the Old Fort Point

The Valley of Five Lakes was an easy and beautiful trail, going alongside five green and blue picturesque lakes. My only advice is be sure to bring a mosquito repellent.

Second Lake

Fifth Lake

A few times we found ourselves just taking slow long walks along the Athabasca River. We didn’t encounter bears but we walked into elks every day.

After the third day, we needed to leave Jasper, however the next train wasn’t until the day after. Everything (besides a few $300-and-up hotels) was booked out, so instead, we decided to take the train back to Kamloops and then again to Edmonton through Jasper. That way, we get to spend a night on the train, safe, dry, and free of charge. Yay!

The downside is that we had to wait 6 hours in Kamloops for our east-bound train. Kamloops station is tiny, open only one hour prior to the train’s arrival and is located literally in the middle of nowhere. We had to walk for 30 minutes to the closest cafe (A&W) at a gas station which was still far away from Kamloops downtown. We literally turned A&W into our charging station to charge all our devices, ate, bought snacks for the next train and stayed there until they were closing. Luckily, when we got back to the station at about 10 pm, somebody was already inside and could let us into the station.

Kamloops train station

We successfully got on the train, reached Jasper on time and continued traveling to Edmonton. Our train got delayed and arrived 6 hours late. They said it was due to storms but come on, 12 hours from Jasper to Edmonton?