The Valley of the Five Lakes is a 4.5km/190 ft elevation hike in Canada’s Jasper National Park, located 9km south of Jasper on the Icefield Parkway (Hwy 93). Parks Canada describes the trail as, “Five small, brilliantly blue-green lakes are the highlights of this outing”. I had read in one of my guides that each of the lakes is a slightly different color. We decided to check this hike out.
Valley of the Five Lakes Trail
Mike and I headed out on this hike which starts gently through a wooded area and opens to a boardwalk that crosses over the Wabasso Creek wetlands. We were using the trail map provided by Parks Canada. There are several other trails that head off in the area. After several looks at the map, we headed up a fairly steep hill. As we reached the crest, I needed to stop and catch my breath. There was another couple, the wife appearing to be in her mid 60’s and the husband in his late 60’s to early 70’s, who were hiking toward us from the opposite direction.
As we were standing in the shade, the other couple had stopped and were discussing something in what I recognized as German. After a short time they approached us. The husband, who knew more English than his wife, asked us which way the lakes were? This confused us slightly because they had come from the direction of the first and largest lake. We pointed in the direction of the lake. We proceeded to try to have a conversation with their broken English and my very rusty German and a lot of pointing. After a short time we felt that they were clear on where the lakes were, as we all had been pointing at the map and there had been much nodding & affirmation. I’m sure this would have made good comedic television if filmed.
Mike and I finished our break and proceeded to head towards lake #1. We got to the first lake and were standing and admiring it when the German couple rejoined us. They seemed very excited and happy to see the lake and then asked about the other lakes. I pointed to this lake and said “eins” (1) and then pointed in the other direction and said: “zwei, drei, vier, funf” (2, 3, 4, 5) in my best German. The couple then nodded and smiled a lot. We were able to have enough conversation to learn they were from Munich and the husband’s sister lives in Edmonton.
Lake #2 on the hike
Mike and I said our farewells and headed to the second lake. The German couple followed us very closely and stood with us once we reached lake #2. There were smiles and pointing and “lake”. Shortly after we arrived, the husband, who was standing next to Mike, clapped him on the back and said “Let’s go” and indicated we should proceed on the trail. Apparently we had become a hiking party of four without any knowledge or consent from us. We did not mind, it was just unexpected.
From there on out, we hiked with our new friends to lakes 3, 4, and 5 and then back to the trailhead. Somewhere between lake 5 and the car, I figured out from talking with the husband that they had somehow gotten lost and had been out hiking for five hours, without any water, before bumping into us! They had somehow managed to do this with out seeing any of the five lakes.
Lake # 3
Lake # 4
The trail winds through forest
We finally arrived back at the parking lot, where serendipity had this couple’s car parked directly next to ours. They were quite relieved to be off the trail. If we had understood each other better, at the time when we first met them, we could have told them they were only a 15 minute walk from their car. We felt bad that they had to hike an additional hour instead, but they were insistent about the beauty of the lakes. It was nice to make some new friends.
Lake # 5
