The lakes of Jasper: which to visit and how to get there
🏘️ Local guide📅 Updated October 18, 2026⏱ 3 min read
Cover: Maligne Lake at sunrise. Photo: Sergey Pesterev, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Jasper has lakes for any amount of time: some are minutes from downtown and you can walk there, others sit at the end of a mountain road that takes a full day. Here they are from closest to farthest, with what you need to know about each one.
Close to town
Pyramid Lake. Photo: Joli Rumi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Pyramid Lake and Patricia Lake are north of town, below Pyramid Mountain. A bridge leads to Pyramid Island, which has a picnic area, and electric-motor boats are allowed on the lake. You can get there without a car on the Pyramid Trail, which starts near downtown and climbs gently for 5.2 km to the lake.
Lac Beauvert. Photo: Suwannee.payne, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Lac Beauvert is the green lake beside the Jasper Park Lodge, a few minutes from town. A flat 3.5 km loop goes around it, and it's one of the walks Parks Canada also recommends in winter.
Valley of the Five Lakes. Photo: Gary, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Valley of the Five Lakes is 9 km south, on the Icefields Parkway: five lakes from green to turquoise linked by trails. The 2024 wildfire burned the forest and bridges, and Parks Canada reopened it in May 2026. The Emerald Loop passes all five in 5.4 km; for something short, Wetland Way is 1.8 km return.
Along the Maligne Road
Medicine Lake changes with the season: in summer the meltwater fills it, and in late summer and fall it drains through sinkholes and becomes a mud flat. According to Parks Canada, the water travels through caves in the limestone and reappears near Maligne Canyon, 16 km downstream.
Maligne Lake, at the end of the road, is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies: 22 km long. Spirit Island is 14 km down the lake with no land access: you get there on the boat cruise or by paddling. The Mary Schäffer Loop starts at the first parking lot, and moose and harlequin ducks are seen at the north end of the lake.
Close by, Moose Lake sits in a hollow left by a giant rockslide: thousands of years ago, five hundred million cubic metres of rock came down, blocked the valley and made Maligne Lake bigger. A 2.7 km loop through the forest reaches it.
Lakeside trails (today's status)
Official sources
- Parks Canada: Maligne Lake
- Parks Canada: Medicine Lake
- Parks Canada: Jasper area itinerary
- Parks Canada: Trails south of Jasper
- Parks Canada: Maligne Valley trails
Community experiences
User experiences, not official information. Always check the official status before you go.
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