Autumn 2020 – Part 19 – Cavell Meadows Hike – Jasper National Park

September 30, 2020

Part of the way back to the parking lot, a trail branches off over the rocky moraine pile, heading up to viewpoints of Mount Edith Cavell, Cavell Pond and Angel Glacier.

• distance – 6-8 km (3.75-5 miles) the distance we walked was 4.8 km (3 miles)
• our elevation gain – 344.4 meters (1,130 feet)
• our duration 3 hours

The day was cool and sunny under bright blue skies, as we hiked over the moraine pile, then through a forest and into the meadows. It was perfect hiking weather, but I had forgotten my hat and hoped my head would not pay the price with sun burn.

From path junction to top of moraine pile.

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As we entered the treed area and passed the scree slope, we got snippets of views of Cavell Pond and Angel Glacier, climbing, ever climbing. This was our first hike at elevation on this trip. The Path to the Glacier trail starts at 1756.8 m (5,764 feet), which was double the elevation at home. We were not huffing and puffing, but paused for the views, as they arrived.

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Flowers struggled for survival, but fungi flourished. Meanwhile the low shrubbery was turning every beautiful shade of fall colour.

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Sunlight dappled the trail.

Still in the trees.

a peek at the peak

Up with the glacier

At long last, we reached the meadows and far from being flat, the meadow trail rolled up and down until we reached the turnaround point where I did my sign language impression.

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At the turn around point, we took a seat and ate our lunch before spectacular views. On the close up of the lake, you can see a tiny hiker in the restricted zone.

As we were getting ready to leave, a single hiker approached us holding out his phone to ask if we would take a photo of him. We refused with regrets, saying “Not during Covid time”. He kept approaching, holding out his phone until we said “Stop”. He looked confused and asked what we meant by “overtime”. We explained and he quickly found a couple of young hikers who agreed to take his photo. Sheeesh.

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Back on the trail to the next viewpoint, we continued to climb, until reaching our highest elevation of 2101.2 meters (6,893 feet).

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Opting to stop our climb here, we turned back rather than head to the final view point.

The path down went fairly quickly and we soon found ourselves on the moraine trail, within view of the parking lot.

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Back on the Path of the Glacier Trail, we retraced our steps along the gravel path to avoid the afternoon crowds hiking the asphalt trail.

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So glad we were able to hike some new territory.