Jasper, Alberta

If Banff is the polished socialite of the Canadian Rockies, Jasper is the wilder, more contemplative sibling — a park and town where the wilderness feels closer, the crowds thinner, and the night sky darker than anywhere else in the mountain parks. Jasper National Park, at 11,228 square kilometres, is the largest park in the Canadian Rockies, and its designation as a Dark Sky Preserve means that on clear nights, the Milky Way arcs overhead with a brilliance that reduces city-dwellers to speechless wonder.

The town of Jasper, population barely 4,500, retains an appealing informality that larger mountain resorts have long since lost. The main street of converted railway buildings and log-cabin shops feels authentically northern rather than architecturally curated. The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, spreading across the shore of Lac Beauvert in a campus of heritage cabins, offers a more relaxed interpretation of mountain luxury than its Banff counterpart — less castle, more sophisticated wilderness camp.

Jasper's culinary landscape has evolved from backcountry fuel stops to a genuine dining destination. Evil Dave's Grill has become a regional landmark, serving creative dishes with a commitment to local sourcing that extends to foraged mushrooms and house-smoked meats. The Downstream Restaurant, overlooking the Athabasca River, pairs Alberta beef and bison with craft cocktails in a setting of understated mountain elegance. The Jasper Brewing Company, the first brewery in a Canadian national park, produces ales that taste best consumed on the riverside patio with an elk grazing nonchalantly in the adjacent meadow.

The park's natural attractions are superlative. Maligne Lake, accessible by a stunning 48-kilometre road from Jasper town, is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies, and the boat cruise to Spirit Island — a tiny, tree-crowned islet set against a backdrop of glaciated peaks — produces one of the most photographed scenes in the country. The Columbia Icefield, shared with Banff, offers guided walks onto the Athabasca Glacier. Maligne Canyon, carved over 11,000 years by snowmelt through limestone, plunges 50 metres and is spectacular both in summer (from walkways spanning the chasm) and winter (via guided ice walks along the frozen canyon floor).

Jasper is reached from Edmonton (approximately 3.5 hours west) or via the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise (3 hours). The Rocky Mountaineer and VIA Rail's Canadian both stop in Jasper, offering some of North America's most scenic train arrivals. Summer months (June-September) offer the widest range of activities, but winter brings exceptional skiing at Marmot Basin, frozen waterfall ice walks, and aurora viewing under the dark sky preserve's pristine conditions. Wildlife — elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black and grizzly bears, and occasionally wolves and caribou — is visible year-round.