Wildfire Evacuation at Jasper National Park

Wildfire Evacuation at Jasper National Park

Our road trip across British Columbia had us going from Vancouver to Jasper and Banff National Parks with a short stop in Kelowna in between. The sunny triple digit temps in Kelowna kept us indoors for the majority of the time, and I was finally getting excited about our upcoming outdoors trip in Jasper and Banff. The weather appeared to have changed on the day of our departure from Kelowna. Sunny skies were replaced by overcast haze, and yet temperatures remained high. Any hopes of the skies turning blue were dashed the further east we traveled. What we initially thought were clouds were actually smoke from several wildfires burning in the region. Our hope was that the skies would clear up as we continued to move east.

After seven hours of driving, we arrived at Jasper.

Scenery along the way

Once our tents were pitched, we took off to check out the nearby Mount Edith Cavell. The drive up is on a narrow winding road.

Saw our first marmot along the way

There are 2 trails, and neither are very long, with the Cavell Meadows trail measuring in at under 5 miles round trip.

Path of the Glacier Trail is almost a mile round trip, and we opted to do this one as it brings you right up to glacier.
This trail is what I would describe as a low effort high yield hike.
A view like this at under half a mile!
Hiking down towards the glacial lake
This trail reminded us of the Hooker Valley track in South Island New Zealand, but this one offers an even closer view of the glacier and icebergs in the lake
As well as glacial melt generated waterfalls.

We took our time marveling at the sight and polishing off our dinner before heading back to camp. This is about when the wind started to pick up with a few raindrops here and there as well as some thunderclaps, and we thought nothing of it. We still hadn’t registered the severity of the storm when we worked our way down the mountain road that was strewn with toppled trees that we hadn’t encountered on our way up.

We had initially mistaken this as storm clouds
When in fact a wild fire triggered by lightning had just started 3 miles upwind from our campsite.
The smoke turning the sun into a bright red fireball.

Half an hour after returning to camp we were informed to evacuate the park.

At around 8:45pm we made our way out of the campground. Later we found out that we had evacuated more than an hour before the official evacuation orders were issued for the entire town of Jasper and Jasper National Park, saving us from the bumper to bumper traffic the later evacuees had to endure.

With fires to the east and south of Jasper, the only escape route was westward, back toward the way we had just come from 4 hours ago. By the time we arrived at Kamloops 6 hours later we were done. Done as in this trip. Woke up the next morning discovered that the Icefields Parkway (one of the main reasons for this trip) linking Jasper and Banff was shut down, and decided to head home instead of driving 6 hours east again to hit Banff, which we’ve been to in the past.

24 hours after first entering Jasper National Park, we now find ourselves decamped sleep deprived at Spirit Ridge in Osoyoos on the Canada side of the US/Canada border, waiting to make our way back home first thing in the morning.

5 thoughts on “Wildfire Evacuation at Jasper National Park”

      1. My family are thre. Our homes are fine, but may of my friends lost everything. Nevertheless, the town is back open, and wanting visitors, and the post-fire part of the park landscape / environment is super interesting. Trees with blisters in the bark, trees laid out in circular patterns… this spring there will be fireweed!

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