Alberta 2012: Mt. Edith Cavell

Hoary Marmot

On Thursday afternoon we visited another famous Jasper mountain, Mount Edith Cavell. The snow-covered, craggy peak of this mountain dominates the skyline south of the town of Jasper, and it is about a 45-minute drive from the townsite. It is reached by taking Highway 93A to Cavell Road, and following Cavell Road twelve kilometers to the parking lot at the end. Cavell Road is narrow and has sharp turns and tight switchbacks that are unsuitable for trailers and large motor-homes, which should be left in a parking area at the beginning of the road. While it wasn’t quite a “white-knuckle” ride up the mountain to the parking lot, the road was steep enough and narrow enough to make me uneasy. There were no shoulders….the white line at the edge of the pavement was all that separated the road from the rocky slope on one side and the vegetation on the other.