Jasper Park, the continent's largest national playground, was created
in 1907. It contains forty-four hundred square miles and comprises all
the ranges east of the Divide in northern Alberta. It is reached by
two transcontinental railroads.
This part of the Great North country suggests adventure, romance, and
history, and brings back to mind the power, the strangeness, and the
picturesqueness of the earlier days of the Hudson's Bay Company. The
storied Athabasca flows through it, a band of silver in a
flower-strewn valley of meadow and park land, hemmed in by
glistening mountains. An important fur district a century ago, its
trading-posts now are tourist resorts with railroads and hotels.
[Illustration: ILLECILLEWAET VALLEY
Mount Sir Donald in distance. Glacier Park, Canada]
Yellowhead Pass, of historic associations, is the western entrance.
Two grim peaks guard the eastern portal. Roche Miette, which dominates
the surrounding country, was formerly a favorite Indian hunting-ground
for mountain sheep. Perdrix or Folding Mountain has strange folds and
angles in its strata.
Many roads and trails reach the beauty spots of this park. Fiddle
Creek Cañon is in places only twenty feet wide, but the roaring,
rushing waters are two hundred feet below. On the same road are the
celebrated Miette Springs and Punch-Bowl Falls, a geological
curiosity. Maligne Lake is a scenic jewel, and its river cañon
displays wonderful erosion. The Park abounds in minerals.
Administration headquarters are at Jasper.