Farnsniente

Having breakfast in the main dining room at the Fairmont Jasper Park

Lodge living in Jasper

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in
📍 Fairmont Jasper Park

Photos

Trip index

Summary

Finally, a leisurely morning and it was a gorgeous, sunny one! It was a long walk from our “cabin” to the main lodge and the property, on Lac Beauvert, is beautiful. The dreadful smoke from yesterday had been cleared out by the rain. Time for working out, breakfast, catching up on email then it’s already time for lunch. In the afternoon we were taking on a bus tour which revealed the awful extent of the forest fires in 2024. Extraordinary measures must have been taken to save the 70 acres of lodge property because the burn line comes right up to it. Lots of beauty still remains in the area as seen from the Maligne overlook of the Athabasca Valley. Also picturesque were Patricia and Pyramid Lakes and the Skytram up Whistlers Mountain.

Details

Today’s our full/free(ish) day in tree-less Jasper. We wake at 7 and it’s sunny and clear, a good sign after last night’s rain. We’re sure the rain cleaned the air some. The weather service says the air quality is a 1, on the Canadian scale, the best possible. Yay. 

We have a leisurely morning in the room before heading over to the Main Lodge for breakfast. On the walk we see lots of small burrowing animal that to us look like prairie dogs or undersized marmots. They’re not tree dwelling but definitely burrow. They move and then freeze, looking and occasionally squeaking. They sometimes stand as tall as possible, like a prairie dog. We ask what they are. We get squirrel and ground squirrel which I poo-poo. I ask AI and learn they’re right. They’re Columbia Squirrel. They sure do look like undersized marmots. I ask AI again and learn that all marmots are squirrels but not all squirrels are marmots.  We learn that marmots are sometimes called “whistle pigs” due to the noise they make. 

At breakfast we start out being good “We’ll split the veggie omelette“, but by the time we add the order of bacon, mixed berries and sliced fruit, it’s a ton of food. The portions are generous. Are we celebrating anything? Why, yes, we have an anniversary this year and we’re celebrating. We meant it to be funny but end up not paying for the berries and the sliced fruit. Nice :-}

We chill back at our nice room. The glassed in sitting room is awesome, although it has radiators all along one wall, which are fighting with the A/C. We can’t figure out how to turn them off. 

We head back to the Main Lodge for lunch. We sit outside overlooking the lake. It’s nice, sunny, and cool. Good healthy not-too-large lunch. 

At 1:30 pm we’re back with the big group, getting on a tour bus. Back with our fun/funny train friends. Our tour guide is Nathan or Nate. He’s yet another Aussie. Great dry sense of humor. Enjoyable. He’s talkative and we learn a lot, though too much of it temporary learning. 

Mr. Jasper Hughes was the outpost manager back in the trading days and thus the place’s name.  We see burn scars (i.e. nothing but shared needle-less tree remains) all around. Nate says it was dry lightning. It was a complex, i.e. multiple fires joining up. They ended up making their own weather which resulted in a fireball tornado. Sounds terribly scary. We see where all the trees in one area are all bent over the same way, a result of the high winds in the fireball tornado. Thank you, no. 

On the bus are good sized people, older people, people who are both big and old so the stops (everyone off, everyone back on) can take a while to get through a complete cycle. Karen was noticing how many “old people“ there are on the trip. I was thinking we need to be careful not to look in the mirror, we might find a couple more. 

First stop is an overlook. Every direction is burnt as far as we can see. The ground vegetation has started in earnest as the fire was a couple of years ago. Nate says this is good for wildlife as the sunlight, normally blocked by the trees, enables lots of yummy edible plants not normally prolific here. Come back in a year or two and we’ll see a lot of wild life enjoying the bounty. 

The tour continues and we drive through town (or what’s left of it) out to see a couple of the nearby lakes and mountains. Patricia lake, pyramid lake. Many of the things around are named for royals, especially the children of Queen Victoria. 

Back in town we hear more about the fire and the rules for the rebuilding. Of course no flammable roofs (like the cedar shingle roofs or outer walls of yore). Also no more single family homes. Whaa? All new in town residences must be duplexes at a minimum. Needless to say not all are happy with such rules. At least a third of the structures in town were lost. 

We pass a Greek restaurant which Nate says is good. When the owner started it he told the local restaurant permitting authority that they want it to be called something-or-other in Greek. The authorities replied “that’s nonsensical… you have to call it something else”. So now the name of the restaurant? “Something else”. 

We see where two adjacent gas stations blew up and we can see the black char on the stucco wall of a nearby house.  We see where the Subway sandwich shop was. It had a cedar shingle roof. Authorities were sure that when it caught fire the whole downtown would go. So in three or four hours they bulldozed it down before the fire got there. Sorry, our bad. 

Of course, as in everywhere in the world these days, the Pine Bark Beetles are partly to blame. They’re the size of a grain of rice, who knew? And it’s not the Pine Bark Beetle that attacks the tree but a fungus that catches a ride on the tiny legs of the beetles.  

Next stop is the tram. CA$91 round trip, but it’s included in our tour. We ride up to the top, where it’s wonderfully cool, and cold even. We’re happy to have our warm clothes. We don’t have enough time to do the walk up there, to the summit, but see many others who are making the trek. It’s a good view from the top, though of course it’s mostly to see mountains and hillsides all around covered in burnt out trees. Needless to say the site gets old. Sorry Jasper. 

As we ride up and down we get to chat with the young adults operating the gondola. Why are there so many Aussies manning all the concessions in Canada? Canada has limits on how many workers from each country are allowed, and how long each can stay, with the exception of Australia. For any business, once workers from all the others countries are filled, they take from Australia with no limit on the number. Thankfully Aussies are fun and nice. 

Back we head to the hotel, seeing a family of elk along the way, grazing. They don’t mind us slowing and snapping pictures. At the resort we take a long hike around part of the lake. Near the lodge the trees are alive. It doesn’t take far to get to the burned out parts. Wow the fires got close. 

Dinner is at the lodge, at their Italian restaurant Orso (bear). It’s exceptionally good. Back to the room to sleep. Tomorrow? A full day bus ride to Lake Louise on a very picturesque road through the Canadian Rockies.  

Photos

Our rooms in our cabin. Actually the building has four big corner units (each with two big rooms) and then there are four ‘non-corner’ units in case you want adjoining rooms.
On the hike to the Main Lodge we pass many of these guys. Mini marmots? Gophers? Prairie dogs? Nope Columbian Ground Squirrels. They’re kind enough to freeze, motionless for a photo.
It’s a many minute walk from our ‘cabin’ to the main lodge. But it’s planted with flowers and has trees and did we mention ground squirrels?
Ready for our breakfast.
The facilities at the main lodge are spacious and well designed. You really get the feeling like you’re a trapper or a logger, but with much nicer accommodations.
Not long after breakfast it’s time for lunch. We sit outside in the cool of the day, in the shade of an awning.
We see the pool and it’s well attended. We continually say we’re going to go swimming but end up doing something else, invariably. One of these days.
On our afternoon bus tour we see tons of devastation from the 2024 fires that blew through here and destroyed 1/3 of the town’s buildings. A fire bomb tornado, or some such name, created by the weather that the fire itself created, blew all of these trees over in the same direction as it was burning them to a crisp.
Many of the towns buildings were saved including this church. Bing Crosby was here at one point and noticed that the church didn’t have a door. He asked why not. They said they were saving up to buy one. He whipped out his checkbook and wrote out a check for the door. Awww.
Karen and Patricia Lake (or maybe Pyramid Lake) with Pyramid Mountain in the background.
New city laws after the fire say no more single family dwellings in town. You want to build you’re putting up a duplex, at least. Not all are happy about that. But so many temporary buildings for now, since people have to live somewhere.
$91 Canadian dollars to go up the gondola, to see… dead trees mostly.
From the top we can see very long trains coming and going and sitting, waiting for another train to pass. They’re coming from the west and heading east, or visa-versa. I ask if any of the goods on them are coming from or going to the US. Someone on the gondola piped up “NOT ANY MORE!” and everyone laughed, we cringe.
Our lodge. Some of the trees were saved.
Also at the top is a walk to the summit. It would have been fun but we’re on a tight schedule.
The two blog authors.
Headed back down.
Regal beef, aka an elk. There were a bunch of them foraging. They didn’t mind us being right by them in our big bus.
On our bus there are safety instructions on how far to stay away from wildlife. Apparently it’s a function of how likely the animal is to kill you. From what we’ve seen people don’t know how to read or don’t care. Humans, HA!
On our walk from our lodge around part of the lake we see lots of different sizes and qualities of accommodations. This is the creme de la creme. Very chi-chi… with a gate to keep the riff-raff out. (Aren’t we the riff-raff?)
Dinner at the resort’s Italian restaurant: Orso (bear). Delish!