Roche Miette Hike (5.2m Round Trip Easy / Moderate)

5.2km Round Trip, 396m Elevation gain, 1h 54min total hiking time

We kinda messed up this one, but I think it all worked out quite nicely. This hike is in Jasper National Park close to the Miette road in a little roadside pullout. From the small parking area there is a more popular path going right up to Roche Miette, along a fire road, for the popular scramble at the end. We took the other path, with the intention of going into the canyon. Both trails meet up if you want to make a little loop out of it. We intended to do a loop but conditions did not allow it, but I will get into later. 

We did this hike during the May long weekend and it was the first of two hikes for us that day. The hike started along a small creek and we walked along its bed until a big cliff wall was along our side. Then we got up on the ridge across from the wall. Soon after that we got to the canyon. The hike was supposed to be an easy little hike into the canyon, but when we got there the creek was too high and impassable. 

We made the decision to go up and follow the trail towards the scramble. The trail was fairly steep from then on, which made up for the general flatness until then. There were a couple of very good views about two thirds to our turn around point. Sarah was quite hopeful that the views would get even better but we quickly got into a forest where the views disappeared altogether. 

The great mountain views were replaced by branches to the face and snow on the trail. We followed the trail until we got to the creek that separates the two sides of the trail. We had lunch here and had to unfortunately turn around. The snow covered the trail to the point where we were unsure of where to go next, so to be safe we just turned around. I also remember the eerie fact that we saw no other people the entire time we were on this trail, which is near impossible in Jasper. 

I thought this was a pretty good hike for the views we saw. I personally also liked that it was not crazy busy. This would be a convenient hike if you are staying by Miette or in Hinton.