Big Bend Hike (6.5km One Way) Easy

Big bend is a swell hike in Jasper. You could do this as a day trip or a short overnight stay. The trail starts at Sunwapta Falls which was nice for those of us that enjoy waterfalls. Since the waterfalls are a main tourist draw the parking can be iffy, so I would get there early if you can. There is an option to continue further down the trail but I do not think you can get all the way to Fortress lake anymore as the bridge was washed away. The hike to Big Bend Campground is a very easy trail and would be well suited to basically all skill levels. This trail would be a great introductory backpacking trail for kids or first timers.

From Sunwapta the trail is very obvious across the bridge. If you follow the river down instead of crossing the bridge you will go to the lower Sunwapta falls instead of doing Big Bend. If you have time the lower falls are nice and not a bad way to extend the hike. They are about a kilometer from the upper falls if I remember correctly. Once you are on the right trail across the bridge there will be a very short climb then the trail is basically gradually downhill the entire way to the campground. The trail is not very interesting as it's in the forest the entire way.

We saw a couple of nice wildflowers including strawberries and fireweed. Also on the way back we saw a Martin bounding down the trail. The end of the trail is very abrupt. You will all of a sudden pop out to a pond and the Athabasca River. At the pond you can go left to continue to the Athabasca Crossing or Right to the Big Bend Campgound. 

The campground was among my favourite backcountry campgrounds. It is right along the river with very nice views right from your tent. Also this was probably the first backcountry campground that was not full over the weekend while we were there. Unfortunately for us there was quite a bit of smoke the day we were there. So we did not get the optimal views but it was still nice. The river bank was quite muddy which was actually quite fun to tromp through some mud flats. I would say the only negatives of the campground were the wind (which was constant) and the bugs (which were not the worst I have seen, see Egypt Lake for that). 

 I feel there could have been a good photo at the campground if the conditions were good, but as I said earlier the day we were there had quite a bit of smoke and no good light. As said in the introduction this hike would be a good dayhike or great introductory overnight hike.