Old Fort Loop Trail

The Old Fort Loop Trail is a sightseeing route located in the community of Jasper, Alberta, Canada in the Jasper National Park. The loop trail circles around behind a bedrock hill (some call it a mountain) before leading up to a lookout with far reaching, wide ranging views of the Athabasca Valley.

To access the lookout point - which many say is the highlight of the loop trail - there are two trailhead entrances located in the parking lot. A quick tough way and a long scenic way.

The shortest and quickest, yet steeper and tougher, trailhead entrance leads directly up to the viewpoint via a series of wooden stairs located near the cliffs in the parking lot. The boardwalk stairs leading up to the viewpoint measures about 700 metres long.

The longer hiking trail route, more scenic and less steep, is more of a hiking adventure and it begins behind the information billboard in the parking lot. The hiking trail circling behind the hill measures 3.1 kilometres long. Combine them both and you have a 4 kilometre loop hiking adventure.

The Old Fort Loop Trail, near Jasper, Alberta, is a hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking destination. However mountain bikes and horses are not permitted on the lookout portion of the trail nor on some back end sections of the trail when approaching the lookout.

The lookout provides some great views of the surrounding area. In the northern direction there are views of Pyramid Mountain, Signal Mountain, Lake Annette and Lac Beauvert. To the south are views of Miette River, the Colin Range and the community of Jasper, Alberta, Canada

Most of the mountain bikers and horseback riders who explore the Old Fort Loop Trail part way do so so to access other longer, more challenging trails in the region.

Some of the other trails accessed from the Old Fort Loop Trail include the Valley of Five Lakes, Skyline and the Wabasso Lake Trails. And when combined with the Old Fort Loop Trail some of these trails create some pretty impressive larger loop routes.