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Jasper National Park Facts

Jasper National Park Facts
Jasper National Park is a 4,200 square mile park located in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. It is north of Banff National Park, and encompasses mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, lakes, and Columbia Icefield glaciers. Jasper National Park was established in 1907, originally named Jasper Forest Park, after Jasper Hawes, a trading post manager for the North West Company. When the National Parks Act was passed in Canada in 1930 it became Jasper National Park. In 1984 the park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. By 2013 Jasper National Park was being visited by more than 2 million people each year.
Interesting Jasper National Park Facts:
Jasper Hawes was the manager of Jasper House, built in 1813 by the North West Company on Brule Lake.
The first tourist to visit Jasper was the Earl of Southesk, in 1859.
In 1884 Jasper House was abandoned because of a decline in fur trading.
The first ascent of Mount Alberta was done in 1925 by Japanese mountaineers.
The road that connects Edmonton, and Jasper, opened in 1928.
Jasper National Park is considered to be the wildest mountain park. It is also the largest of the national parks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Attractions within Jasper National Park include Tonquin Valley, Medicine Lake, Maligne Lake, Pyramid Mountain, Pyramid Lake, and Mount Edith Cavell.
Additional scenic attractions with the park include Athabasca Glacier, Marmot Basin, Athabasca Falls, Jasper Skytram, and the Miette Hot Springs.
Athabasca River and Smoky River are major river systems that originate within Jasper National Park.
Jasper National Park encompasses valleys, glaciers, forests, rivers, meadows, and mountains.
Jasper National Park is open all year. Reaching the park is possible by car, railway, and shuttles.
Animals that can be seen when visiting Jasper National Park include Grizzly bears, black bears, caribou, moose, wolves, mule deer, elk, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, coyotes, wolverines, beavers, white-tailed deer, pikas, and marmots.
Jasper National Park is home to a variety of bird species including great horned owls, golden eagles, bald eagles, Canada geese, bohemian waxwings, white-tailed ptarmigans, and grouses.
The Jasper Park Information Centre National Historic Site is the main visitor center in Jasper National Park. It was built in 1913-14 and is one of the first buildings of its rustic style to be built in a national park in Canada.
Popular warmer weather activities at Jasper National Park include camping, hiking, kayaking, fishing, sight-seeing, rafting in the rivers, and watching for wildlife or birds.
Popular colder weather activities at Jasper National Park include skiing, ice walks in canyons, skating on ponds, snowboarding, snowshoeing, wildlife viewing, and fat biking (bikes with fat tires that work in the snow).
Visitors to Jasper National Park, as with all national parks in Canada, are asked to disturb the environment as little as possible. Jasper has 70 mammal species that rely on the environment to remain undisturbed in order to survive.
Jasper National Park has managed, through conservation efforts, to keep wildlife and plant life thriving. Other parks have not been as successful in their efforts.


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