Bald Hills Hike, Alberta

I've actually done this hike twice so I'm going to post pictures from both trips. This is a spectacular hike in Jasper National Park, Alberta. The trailhead is at Maligne Lake, about 40km from Jasper. We started the hike on a nice wide fire road, with a steady climb that became steeper later. At about 2km there's a junction to either take a steeper hiking trail up, or continue up the more gradual fire road. The first time we did the trail, we tried the steeper way, and the second time we took it easy on the fire road. Both routes met up once we got above the treeline and into the alpine, and the viewpoint of Maligne Lake was only a short walk away.

Once we got into the alpine, there was a lot more wind, and less of a defined trail. We stopped to have a quick lunch in one of the rock wind shelters someone had built up there, and by the time we were done we were freezing. We continued up some easy scrambling, then through a meadow, and up further to the summit ridge. The dropoff on the other side of the ridge is very sharp, and since I don't like heights much I stayed well away from the edge. We all walked up to the top summit for incredible views.

From there we just followed the path back down. On both trips we took the shorter, steeper route down and saw wildlife (a deer) on the trail. Walking out on the fire road was easy but a little boring, and then we were at the car for a nice drive out alongside Maligne Lake. On both trips we stopped at Maligne Canyon on the way home to check out the incredibly deep canyons that have formed there.