The town of Jasper lies on a broad floodplain at the confluence of the Miette and Athabasca rivers, making the surrounding mountains less immediate and so a shade less majestic than elsewhere in the Rockies.

Add to this the town’s sizeable industrial park and rail-yard beside its downtown and you end up with some of the windswept frontier feel more typical of a more northern Canadian town.

This grittiness can feel in step with its wild surroundings and certainly the prissiness of bits of Banff is pretty much absent. All this makes Jasper more a place to sleep, eat and stock up, rather than hang out for long.

That said, reasonable hiking and mountain biking trails practically start from its downtown. This focuses on Connaught Drive and the parallel Patricia Street and is where you’ll find almost all restaurants and bars. Most hotels are elsewhere, making downtown quieter than it might be.

Transport