Hiking, Sightseeing

Skyline Trail

3 Comments

I have done this trail twice now and both times in harsh weath­er. I was wait­ing to go again so I can get some updat­ed pho­tos for you. Here are some details of the Sky­line Trail for all of you that are inter­est­ed in this spec­tac­u­lar hike.

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Patrick Cross­ing the stream
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Col­or­ful rock fall
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The cairn along the route
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View from Watch­tow­er

You can access this trail from sev­er­al loca­tions, Sig­nal Moun­tain, Wabas­so Lake, Watch­tow­er, and the most com­mon route starts at Maligne Lake and end­ing up at Sig­nal Moun­tain.

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Cura­tor Lake

There are about sev­en camp­sites on this trail, Eve­lyn Creek 5.2km (dis­tance will list from Maligne Lake Trail­head), Lit­tle Shov­el Pass 8.1km, Snow Bowl 11.8km, Watch­tow­er 21.5 (this camp­site is off the main path, and can be access by the Maligne Lake road just before Med­i­cine Lake 10.3km), Cura­tor 20.4km, Tekar­ra 30.1km, Sig­nal 35.7km then anoth­er 8.5km down to the road. Book­ing camp­sites for this pop­u­lar trail is a must and well in advance.

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Be pre­pared for this trek as the weath­er changes are fre­quent and unpre­dictable. These pho­tos were tak­en years ago and it was all in one long 12 hour day. If you think you are unable to hike this trail, try going by horse­back with a local out­fit­ter, and their access is from the Athabas­ca val­ley side by the way of Wabas­so Lake.

Access: Maligne Lake, 48km from Jasper

Park­ing: Yes, last park­ing lot

Trail­head: Short walk

Dis­tance: 45–47 Kilo­me­ters (usu­al­ly 3day trek)

Ele­va­tion Gain: 1,350m

Activ­i­ties: Hik­ing / Horse­back

Thanks to Patrick for being my mod­el.

 by Eddie Wong.

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3 thoughts on “Skyline Trail”

  1. Hi There — Just won­der­ing what times of year you’ve done Sky­line? I have booked one night each on Eve­lyn, Cura­tor, and Snow­bowl in ear­ly Octo­ber this year. I’ve heard this trail can be quite harsh that time of year and I’m recon­sid­er­ing at least the lat­ter two camps.
    Thanks, Corb

    Reply

  2. Hel­lo Corb,
    Octo­ber is a good sea­son to go, you might run into weath­er, like snow, rain and cool weath­er, looks like you booked three sites and that should be more than enough for trail. There are some areas to divert out if need be. The snow usu­al­ly starts lat­er Octo­ber. Are you going in from Sig­nal or Maligne? If you start from Maligne, at least your ele­va­tion will drop and less chance of weath­er strand­ing you.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Eddie. Yes, I’ll be start­ing from Maligne. (I’ll be camp­ing on Maligne for two nights via canoe pri­or to start­ing Sky­line. If there are some areas to divert I think we’ll go ahead with it and judge the weath­er from Eve­lyn before pro­ceed­ing fur­ther.

      Reply

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