What's on in Jasper (Jasper National Park), Canada through the year

Busy — Winter / Christmas break in Canada, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually)), Marmot Basin ski season (15 Nov – 1 May (usually))

Quiet — one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually)), Marmot Basin ski season (15 Nov – 1 May (usually))

Busy — March break / semaine de relâche in Canada

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually)), Marmot Basin ski season (15 Nov – 1 May (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually)), Marmot Basin ski season (15 Nov – 1 May (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in May.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually)), Marmot Basin ski season (15 Nov – 1 May (usually))

Busy — Summer break in Canada, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in June.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually))

Busy — Summer break in Canada, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Hazard

  Wildfire smoke risk

  1 Jul – 10 Sep · usuallySmoke season

  Fire reached the townsite itself in 2024 and a third of the buildings went. In an ordinary bad summer the problem is smoke from elsewhere in Alberta or BC settling in the valley for days and taking the mountains with it. Source ↗

Busy — Summer break in Canada, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Wildfire smoke risk (1 Jul – 10 Sep (usually))

Busy — Summer break in Canada

• Nature

  Elk rut

  1 Sep – 10 Oct · usuallyWildlife seasonRisk

  Bulls bugle from the golf course and the verges around the townsite through September, and they are genuinely dangerous at close range. Parks staff spend the month moving people back thirty metres.

• Nature

  Aspen and larch turn

  10 Sep – 5 Oct · usuallyAutumn colour

  The aspen along the Athabasca go gold in the second half of September and the larch above the treeline a week or two later. It is the short gap between the summer coaches and the first settled snow.

Still on: Wildfire smoke risk (1 Jul – 10 Sep (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

• Festival

  Jasper Dark Sky Festival

  16–25 OctMajor festivalBook early

  Ten days of astronomers, telescopes and talks in the second half of October, inside one of the largest dark-sky preserves anywhere. It is timed for long nights before the snow shuts the high viewpoints. Source ↗

Still on: Elk rut (1 Sep – 10 Oct (usually)), Aspen and larch turn (10 Sep – 5 Oct (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

• Closure

  Icefields Parkway in winter

  1 Nov – 15 Jun · usuallyRisk

  The road to Lake Louise stays open but loses its services: no fuel for 230 km, ploughing only in daylight hours from October to May, and avalanche-control closures that can shut it with no notice. Source ↗

• Season

  Marmot Basin ski season

  15 Nov – 1 May · usually

  Marmot usually opens in the third week of November and runs into April or early May. It is the quietest big hill in the Rockies, largely because getting to Jasper in winter is a four-hour drive nobody does casually. Source ↗

Busy — Winter / Christmas break in Canada, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Icefields Parkway in winter (1 Nov – 15 Jun (usually)), Marmot Basin ski season (15 Nov – 1 May (usually))