Maligne Canyon

Elevation: 1140 m
Elevation Gain: 130 m
Maligne Canyon is a 1.2-km-long slot canyon in Jasper National Park that reaches depths of over 50-m. The canyon’s walls are comprised of Devonian sandstone, which has been carved by spring-fed karst water that begins its underground journey 14-km away at Medicine Lake. Unlike most canyons, the top of Maligne Canyon is often its narrowest point, leading to speculation that the canyon was once a deep cave that was uncovered by glacial erosion. Maligne Canyon takes its official name from the French word for “malignant” (which was originally applied by Pierre-Jean de Smet to describe its turbulent outlet river).
My Ascents:
July 16 2024
Trailhead: Maligne Canyon Parking Lot

In July 2024, we made an overdue return to beautiful Jasper, AB. Having enjoyed our previous trips there as a young couple and a young family, we wanted to share this one with our extended families and invited my parents, Brianne’s parents, Brianne’s sister, her husband and our niece, an aunt, an uncle and a couple of family friends. From July 13 – 17, we enjoyed some of the best that Jasper has to offer, in terms of hikes, bike rides, swimming, food, medical attention and, most importantly, company. As we drove home, we were already discussing our next visit.

Jasper Wildfire

On the evening of July 22, Parks Canada responded to multiple wildfire starts following a storm and an extensive heatwave. Within hours, it became clear that two wildfires were approaching the town of Jasper from the south and the north and an evacuation order was issued at 10:00 pm. About 25,000 evacuees were forced to flee in the middle of the night. On July 23, high temperatures and strong winds led to “aggressive fire behaviour” and many of the town’s remaining first responders were relocated to nearby Hinton. At 6:40 pm, a wall of flames, 100-m-high, reached the townsite and Albertans held their collective breath and hoped for the best. That night, about 30% of the town was lost. Remarkably, fire crews were able to save the remaining 70%. Weeks later, the townsite has been largely extinguished, however, the fire continues to burn, out of control, and officials estimate that it may continue to do so for months, forever altering Jasper’s magnificent mountainscapes.

July 16

The final day of our 2024 Jasper family camping trip dawned in much the same way that the previous days had: HOT 🥵 and EARLY 🥱 thanks to a mid-July heatwave and children, respectively. While Jasper’s Whistlers campground is a longtime favorite of ours, it was simply TOO HOT to mill about our campsites all day. Therefore, we’d thus far filled our trip with hikes to destinations where we could escape the oppressive heat. On July 14, we enjoyed a refreshing swim in the Valley of the Five Lakes. On July 15, we followed the ancient and icy Path of the Glacier in the shade of Mount Edith Cavell’s north face. For today, I proposed that we escape the relentless sun ☀️ with a trip to Maligne Canyon’s shadowy depths. Of course, the Maligne Canyon hike actually follows its upper rim (since its depths are filled with fast-running water), but the trip’s whole “beat the heat” hiking theme was obviously a thinly veiled excuse to visit many of Jasper’s most popular tourist attractions. Regardless, no one in our large, three-generation family group seemed to mind and everyone quickly agreed when Brianne and I suggested Maligne Canyon as the hike-du-jour for July 16th!

After a brief commute and miraculously securing 4 parking spots at the busy trailhead, we set off for the final Jasper adventure of our trip.

LEFT: Only moments from the parking lot, we reached the first of many bridged canyon crossings which provided the day’s best views of the gorge. The Canyon’s deepest point is between the first and second bridges, so you’ll notice that Brianne has a good grip on 6-year-old Penny even though there’s a sturdy railing on this (and all of the other) bridges! 😂
RIGHT: It’s a long drop from Bridge 1! 😵

LEFT: Uncle Odo carefully descends the paved stairs and pathways that abound near bridges 1 and 2.
RIGHT: Just because the trail is paved doesn’t mean there’s no scrambling! Here, 6-year-old and 8-year-old cousins Penny and Mera provide nearly-3-year-old Maren with a “hands-on” scrambling lesson (while Auntie Goat 🐐 supervises).

LEFT and RIGHT: Things not typically suited to hiking trails (and only seen on ultra-busy ones like Maligne Canyon)…

LEFT and RIGHT: Brianne and Penny check out the less-narrow, but still scenic, canyon near Bridge 3.

Bridge 3 provides great views of an impressive subterranean waterfall, so even if you don’t hike as far as we opted to, I’d recommend hiking to this point at least. As an added bonus, this cascade generated a cooling mist and fresh breeze that were extremely welcome in the midst of the Extreme Heat Warning 🌡️ that was in place!

LEFT: Grandma and Mera smile for a photo while Evan contemplates jumping into the chasm below to escape the heat.
RIGHT: It’s definitely scenic, but jumping is not a good idea regardless of how hot it is.

LEFT: 1-year-old Lillian looking like she’s ready for a mid-afternoon nap in the heat…
RIGHT: Looking back to busy Bridge 3. While the trail to this bridge is littered with tourists, strollers, walkers and other out-of-place objects, the path got more rugged as we moved towards Bridge 4 and the canyon became concomitantly less busy.

LEFT: Butterfly attack!!! 🦋
RIGHT: Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the canyon walls were literally fluttering thanks to a preponderance of orange wings!

LEFT: Interesting views of the azure, and surprisingly calm, Maligne River from Bridge 4. At this point, we faced a dilemma: turn back about 1-km from whence we came, or explore 1.4-km further to see what Bridge 5 looks like? If you’ve read any other posts on this website, you can probably guess which option “we” picked! 🤷
RIGHT: Below Bridge 4, the canyon widens and the growing river becomes more of a whitewater affair.

Attempting to take a nice family photo in the canyon... I guess someone was thirsty… 🤦‍♂️

LEFT and RIGHT: Random springs add to the river’s increasing flow. It’s crazy to imagine how many underground rivers and creeks like this exist just below the surface in this area! 🤯

LEFT: Mera leads our multi-generation group down the slightly more rugged trail downstream of Bridge 4. While the hike between Bridges 4 and 5 was pleasant, the most scenic sections are, without a doubt, between Bridges 1 and 4.
RIGHT: As we neared Bridge 5, the Canyon become more of a River and the more open terrain granted farther ranging views, like this one of Pyramid Mountain.

LEFT: “At long last” (after 2.4-km downhill 😝), Bridge 5 came into view. While the journey to Bridge 5 wasn’t extreme, the afternoon heat was and we were happy to call it a day here.
RIGHT: A random tourist declares his candidacy for a “Darwin Award” below Bridge 5. Note the idiotic combination of sneakers, a wet rock and rushing mountain water… It doesn’t matter how hot it is, this isn’t a good idea (especially when there was a shallow beach with calm water on the other side of the bridge)! Sadly, there has already been a fatality at this bridge.

LEFT: Lillian, Mera and Dad, happy to be at the end of the hike (for most of us)…
RIGHT: A butterfly for Mera too! 🦋 She was ecstatic when it landed on her. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was probably just because of the residual peanut butter and jam sandwich that she had all over her hands! 😂

Remember that comment about “the end of the hike (for most of us)…”? Well, stopping at Bridge 5 presented one small challenge for our group. All four of our vehicles were still 2.4-km upstream near Bridge 1! This meant that the four members of our party whose ages fell into the 30 – 45 demographic were “voluntold” to hike back upstream with four sets of car keys so that we could shuttle all the vehicles down to the Bridge 5 parking lot. Fortunately, there was a cooler of cold beer 🍺 in one of those vehicles so our highly motivated squad of uphill canyon hikers conquered the requisite 130-vertical-meters in about 20-minutes. 😂

After earning a “cold one” at the Bridge 1 parking lot, we returned all four vehicles to their respective owners at Bridge 5 below. Since it was still crazy hot 🥵 and we were “in the neighborhood”, we decided to check out nearby Lake Annette. Sadly, Parks Canada actually pays someone to lie to would-be-visitors at the entrance to this beautiful lake by telling them that the parking lots are full. This is probably because paying one person to lie is cheaper than paying a few people to actually manage the parking lots… 🙄 Sadly this deterred half of our group from joining but a few of us wanted a cool dip in the Lake badly enough to risk circling a full parking lot or two. There were plenty of spots, even on this hot afternoon! #ThanksParksCanada

In addition to its crystal-clear waters and far-ranging views, Lake Annette even had a magnificent white sand beach for us to enjoy! 🏖️👙

LEFT: It’s always important to stay hydrated on a hot day…
RIGHT: Little Lilly wets her toes (while Mom whetted her whistle). 😏

Four cousins cap their day and our Jasper camping trip in cool fashion with a crisp sit in Lake Annette and magnificent mountains views. ❤️

Jasper Wildfire Epilogue

The 2024 Jasper wildfire forever changed many of the Park’s landmarks, including those that we visited and enjoyed as a family. As images of the fire’s devastation begin to appear in its aftermath, we’re deeply saddened by the scale of the devastation, but grateful that we were able to experience these special places together before it happened. We’re also thankful for the men and women who risked so much to fight this fire.

Maligne Lake Road near Maligne Canyon on August 7, 2024 (image credit: Jasper National Park Facebook).

Sadly, these destructive events are becoming more and more commonplace as the result of anthropogenic climate change. As the 2017 Kenow Fire in Waterton showed us, however, every ending brings with it a new beginning. We’ll, therefore, look forward to revisiting this beautiful area when it’s safe to do so. For Jasper National Park, this isn’t “goodbye”, it’s “see you later.”