The town of Jasper and environs is the hub for camping and easy access to the many great locations housed in Jasper National Park. It resides in the Rocky Mountains at the cusp of the Yellowhead Highway and the Icefields Parkway (which run roughly east-west and north-south respectively). We won't spend any time describing the grandeur of the area. It's a given that the backdrops are breathtaking, the wildlife abundant and for the most part readily accessible if you exercise common sense and follow the park rules.

Wildlife photography, however, requires a word of caution. Many animals are encountered at or near the roadside, causing hazzardous congestion as viewers slow down or try to park and commercial traffic continues to push through. It shouldn't take much to visualize photography under these conditions as it simply compounds your ability to position for light and backdrop as you risk life and limb from motorists anxious to move on. Although this is hard to avoid at times, we visited many locations where you can mitigate most of these conditions, especially if you enjoy a short walk or alpine hike. Generally the mountain backdrops we encountered off the beaten track were far superior to any we experienced at roadside.

We visited in early October when the rut was largely over, the autumn colours had turned and the drop in temperature was signalling the onset of winter. Although we didn't encounter a few of our target species close up, what we did find were in prime condition in cooperative weather. We used a combination of lenses but found anything from 300mm to 500mm appropriate for most subject size and background. We recommend either a 70-200mm or 24-105mm for pano shots as it is relatively easy to isolate subjects with mountain backdrops, especially Big Horn Sheep in alpine habitat.

For a quick start to this area, we have segmented locations according to where specific animals tended to hang out. A good site for Pika are the rocks below Maligne Lake Road at the Medicine Lake information pulloff. Although it was too late in the year to see any Hoary Marmot, Whistlers Mountain or Edith Cavell Meadows seem to be the best alpine locations. We also didn't see any Mountain Goats but there was plenty of evidence that they like the Kerkeslin Goat Lick on the Icefields Parkway at the Mount Fryall pulloff. Moose can be seen at the Cottonwood Slough, on Palisades Road or near the Maligne Lake Lodge. A good place for Black Bear is on the Marmot Basin Road. Mule Deer are everywhere but seem to favour the roads bordering Maligne Lake, Pyramid Lake or the Snaring River.

Elk and Big Horn Sheep predominantly congregate anywhere within a 20 Kilometer radius of town, usually either on or a short distance from the highways. Sheep tend to be east of Jasper either on the Yellowhead Highway or on the cliffs and meadows within a short distance, generally up. Trails are easy to find and usually well marked. We encountered three herds, the first at the Maligne Road junction and the other two roughly 10 and 20 Kilometers farther on. Our favourite locations for Elk were the Wapiti Campground or just off the Maligne Lake Road roughly 1 Kilometer from the left turn after crossing the bridge.

The results from our trip to this area are published in Gallery 32. We intend to update this synopsis later this year with descriptions of opportunities that are available at Banff and Waterton Lakes National Parks.