Maligne Adventures — Local services in Municipality of Jasper

During out recent trip to Jasper, we were desperate to see some of the local wildlife inhabitants and decided to book an evening wildlife tour with Maligne Adventures for our first night, and there is no exaggeration in saying that this was one of the best tours I have ever done.

We were greeted by Jamie who picked us up at the Marmot Lodge and warmly welcomed us to his comfortable tour bus. Jamie informed us that there was never a guarantee of seeing animals but within 5 minutes we were all in awe, watching our first black bear beside the railway tracks before even getting into the wilderness.

The next 2.5/3 hours were filled with beautiful scenery, bears, elk, eagles, deer and even a coyote family. This trip genuinely felt like a drive through a safari park with the abundance of nature on show in the pristine wilderness of Jasper, there wasn't a dull moment.

Jamie made this trip so spectacular with his unrivalled passion and knowledge about the local wildlife. He knew where the local eagles were nesting, where the osprey liked to hang out and could spot bears no‐one else had noticed. Jamie took the time to tell us plenty stories about wildlife and the local area in general, pointing out everything we were seeing on route, and told us that on his days off, he liked to explore the local area for animals then too and his passion really translated into the tour. The thing that stood out the most about Jamie in his role as a tour guide on wildlife searches was not only his deep passion for the flora and fauna of the area but his absolute respect for wildlife and nature that he imparts on to his guests. Jamie advised on the dos and don’ts with keeping safe distances, respecting boundaries etc, pointing out the errors of other people getting out of cars and at one point respectfully asking people to get back in their cars and give bears the space and respect they deserve. Jamie is not just a casual observer and commentator of wildlife, he is a true conservationist and ambassador for the natural world.

After almost 3 hours, we started to head back when we stopped to see a grizzly bear with her 2 cubs who casually sauntered across the road and gently kept pace with the bus, turning over large rocks looking for bugs, the cubs were very playful with each other, copying everything mum did too and it was incredible and very entertaining to watch. Jamie checked that no one on the tour was in a hurry to get back for anything and was happy to let us enjoy this for around half an hour maybe even longer even though the tour was officially over, and never once mentioned that the tour was over or we were keeping him from his personal life, he truly just wanted to make sure everyone got the most from the tour and got memories to last them a lifetime.

A solid 10 out of 10 for this tour and genuinely a must do for anyone hoping to see animals in their...

Do not recommend – may not paddle for the entire excursion.

Lessons learned: When you’re asked which position of the boat you want, pick anything, so you don't get stuck in the “princess” position. When in doubt, ensure that there are a sufficient number of spots on the boat to accommodate your group size.

The guides were knowledgeable and experienced, and the transportation and logistics were handled well enough, but the overall operations could use significant improvement.

On our outing at Sunwapta River on 7/15 1:30PM, there were two boats that each could seat 6 paddlers and the guide. That day, there was a group of 5, 2, 2, and our group of 3. The groupings made it so that the guides put the group of 5 in one boat and the rest of us in the other boat, for a total of 7.

We were told that one person would have to ride “king” or “princess” position, but that we would rotate out once we were on the river. We were not asked if we would split up, and frankly why would we? You wouldn't split up a couple and have them raft separately, why would you do that to a group of friends?

I sat in the non-paddling position for a third of the trip. This position SUCKS. You don’t have an oar. You don’t paddle. There’s no participation with any of the guide’s commands like paddling forward or backward. All you do is sit there and get splashed in the face.

When asked by the guide part way through to switch, my friend reluctantly gave up her position so that I could get a chance to paddle. At another point in the excursion, the guide asked again if anyone wanted to switch to the non-paddling position and of course no one volunteered. People don’t sign up for a river rafting adventure only to sit on a boat and get splashed in the face.

So in the end, only my group of 3 had to rotate in the non-paddling position, which I felt was incredibly unfair. Really put a damper on our first river rafting experience. I emailed customer service afterwards and they cited safety concerns and insisted that they offered to split us up (they did not, and even if they did, that’s not an acceptable solution). When signing groups up for river rafting, they should use each individual boat as the max capacity, not the overall number of seats between two boats. If we had known our group would put in a boat over the 6 person threshold and that we would have to be in the non-paddling position, we would have gone with another company.

I requested a refund of 33% of the total cost of the trip, since our group did not paddle for a third of the trip. The request was not honoured and complimentary photos were...

We booked on for an early evening nature tour whilst touring the area. The bus picked us up from our RV site at Lake Louise campground. We collected the other guests, and then we were off on our adventure. Our guide Ross gave us a brief introduction to himself and how long he'd lived in Jasper and his love of the wildlife of the area. He used a headset to communicate, so everyone on the bus could easily hear what he was saying. He explained that - as it was a little rainy - there were no guarantees of getting to see any animals, but if we were lucky, we might get to see a bear. He made sure that we were all on the lookout on both sides of the road - as the animals can pop up when least expected.

Well, we were lucky that night, we got to see plenty of elk very close to the bus, a pair of Bald Eagles, an osprey along with a Black bear just ambling along the roadside. There were plenty of photo opportunities, with Ross turning the bus around for folks on the other side to get some snaps too.

Our time came to an end all too soon - we could have spent hours more in the company of Ross - to hear another bear story or two, local ecology and many facts about all the wildlife in the area.

We left having a whole new respect for the area and the magnificent animals we share the space with in their habitats.

What a wonderful way to spend a...