Jasper National Park: Skyline Trail
Go to hiker heaven on Canada’s finest high-country path.
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Little Shovel Pass made me a backpacker. Not the occasional-weekend- in-the-woods type, but the guzzledthe- Kool-Aid-and-asked-for-a-bigger-cup variety who daydreams in meetings and haunts the discount racks at REI and who, in 1997, accepted a 25-percent pay cut—with a baby on the way—to take an assistant editor job at this magazine.
I’d hiked plenty of miles before tackling Jasper’s Skyline Trail. With my wife, I’d explored New England’s forests, bumped into bears in the Olympics, and sweated out sections of the Appalachian Trail. But the panorama that unfolded at 7,347 feet atop the switchbacks of Little Shovel Pass—and the way-abovetreeline views that slackened our jaws all the way to Centre Lakes—were a eureka moment.
Before, I’d seen backpacking as a pleasant, wallet-friendly escape from the rat race. After hiking that 10.8-mile stretch—and realizing just how soul-stirring a grand landscape can be—the pursuit of mountain scenery became a way of life. The Skyline today has tight quotas— the price of fame and a fragile alpine environment—but it rivals a Grand Canyon rafting permit in worth-thewait payoff.
Tracing ridges strewn with cinquefoil, pulsatilla, and lupine, the 27.6-mile Maligne Range traverse dips into fragrant spruce and lodgepole forest haunted by caribou and black bears for a few miles at start and finish, and at five backcountry campsites. Smack in the middle—on those 10.8 miles—you’ll ramble across the most sustained stretch of tundra this side of Denali, serenaded all the way by pikas and marmots.
Watch for bear activity; we saw a grizzly-excavated hole that looked like the work of a backhoe. Keep your eyes to the horizon, too: From Little Shovel Pass to the Snowbowl to Shovel Pass to The Notch to Amber Mountain’s descent to Centre Lakes, the ever-improving vistas take in everything that draws photographers to the Canadian Rockies. Maligne Lake’s glacier-blue waters—so brilliantly azure they transcend every cliché.
Thousands of acres of icefields flowing through notches in the massifs that tower above the Athabasca Valley to the west. The shark-toothed Queen Elizabeth Ranges to the east. And—from The Notch—the hulking giants of Mts. Edith Cavell (11,033 feet) and Robson (at 12,927 feet, British Columbia’s highest peak). Whatever you do, budget three days for the Skyline. The middle might be the slowest 10 miles you ever hike.
—Jonathan Dorn
PERFECT 10 MILES Skyline Trail from Little Shovel Pass to Centre Lakes
MAPS Gem Trek Jasper and Maligne Lake ($10, gemtrek.com)
PERMITS Required. ($9.80 CDN per person per day plus reservation fee and park pass, see Contact)
CONTACT (780) 852-6177; pc.gc.na





Trail Facts
- Distance: 42.2
Waypoints
HUM001
Location: 46.286397, -122.271725
Hummocks trailhead
HUM002
Location: 46.285749, -122.271588
Interpretive sign-destruction
HUM003
Location: 46.284847, -122.270249
Interpretive sign
HUM004
Location: 46.284042, -122.269611
Interpretive sign
HUM005
Location: 46.281493, -122.267567
Bench
HUM006
Location: 46.280738, -122.268127
Interpretive sign-water
HUM007
Location: 46.27895, -122.265735
Junction with Boundary Trail; turn right to continue on Hummocks Loop
HUM008
Location: 46.278927, -122.265828
Interpretive sign-debris avalanche
HUM009
Location: 46.280593, -122.274431
Spur trail left to North Toutle River viewpoint
HUM010
Location: 46.280385, -122.275112
North Toutle River
HUM011
Location: 46.281971, -122.27512
Trail fork: right
HUM012
Location: 46.282565, -122.275813
Beaver pond and dam
HUM013
Location: 46.284461, -122.277214
Bench
HUM014
Location: 46.286789, -122.272042
Hummocks Trail end
Hummocks Trail
Location: 46.282354, -122.267468
Volcano View
Location: 46.278824, -122.266181
Hummocks Trail
Location: 46.278987, -122.271245
North Fork Toutle
Location: 46.280263, -122.275
Beaver Tree
Location: 46.282784, -122.276137