When I was driving through Jasper to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge I noticed a steep hill covered in mountain goats to my right and I thought “that would be kind of fun to hike.” Turns out that hill was Old Fort Point, an iconic Jasper hike with a lot of history.
HISTORY
There are still a few clearly manmade columns along the front part of the hike and so I knew there had to be some sort of history.
Turns out that the base of this hike there was an internment camp in 1916, a TB isolation hospital in the 1920s, housing for workers during the Second World War in the 1940s, and finally, the area became the Jasper Free Camp in the 1970s. (Source)
OLD FORT POINT LOOP
Distance (on trail): 3.5 km return or 1-2 hours
The hike itself is a loop and you can actually take it to other trails, even to Maligne Canyon.
I didn’t do the full loop because I was on a major time schedule. I had finished my 10k (PB’d by the way) and had two hours until the dinner and awards started so I booked it for the trailhead.
I was able to access Old Fort Point by walking around Lac Beauvert from my hotel room. It only took me 30 minutes to hit the trailhead and it was on a road along some beautiful birch trees that reminded me of my Fort McMurray days.
I started the hike up the steep stairs and with my legs tired and fatigued that was a feat!
This hike is like the Bear’s Hump of Jasper because it’s very short to go up but the views are amazing.
Because I didn’t have the time to do the full loop I stopped at the very top part of the hike and turned around.
I jogged down and made it back to the hotel with a half hour to shower and get ready for supper- winning!
I will definitely recommend this hike to people who want a short hike with epic views and are willing to sweat quite a bit for a short amount of time.
Has anyone done the full loop?Â
Who has run into mountain goats while hiking?
P.S. I had way more photos but I thought they uploaded to Google Drive and deleted them from my phone- and they didn’t all upload. >:(
That lake is gorgeous! I can’t wait to go back to Canada again to explore all these places! Thanks for the share 🙂