Just a short drive from the Jasper downtown core is Maligne Canyon. During the summer months, you can hike along the canyon and see the water falls and the deep water-carved canyon but, in the winter time it is possible to walk through the canyon on the frozen water. During Jasper Pride, this walk becomes a pride activity for those who want to do something other than skiing. Sundog Tours takes you to a rental shop to get you equipped with rubber boots and ice cleats, then buses groups over to the canyon.

Once at the canyon, they lead you on a guided tour that begins along the path you would during the summer, over some of the bridges that criss-cross the canyon. From here you can begin to see the frozen water falls - huge chunks of ice hanging from the edges of the canyon - and sheets of rolling solid ice along the river bed.  In some places the canyon goes down to a depth of 50 meters.

There are several places in the limestone rocks in the valley where can see fossils of sea creatures - small shell-like imprints - from when the earth was covered in water. They also talk about the disappearing and reappearing Medicine Lake that is part of the Maligne Valley watershed.

Eventually you hop through the fences and down a steep path to the frozen river. It is slippery even with the ice cleats so you just have to be careful and watch out for one another. The guides walk ahead of the group and are constantly checking the safety of the frozen river bed, warning you ahead of time of areas that might not be safe to step.  Depending on the weather, there are parts where you are getting dripped on from above, or wading through a shallow layer of water on top of the ice, which is why the combination of rubber boots and cleats are critical to your comfort and safety.

When the weather is colder, the ice formations are a lot more pronounced.  Many of the waterfalls produce a frozen outer shell while the water continues to flow inside.  In some areas you see water that has frozen as it comes out from between the layers of lime stone of the canyon walls. We even saw ice climbers tackling some of the frozen waterfalls, which must take a fair bit of bravery.

Near the end of the tour we arrived at the largest frozen falls, and when you look up, you can see the bridge that crosses the canyon above. The view is truly a one of a kind experience. Photographs hardly do it justice since you loose the sense of scale for the falls and canyon walls.

Our group posed for photos in front of the frozen falls, where there was an area of overhanging ice that people could walk inside.  If you are adventurous, you can even crawl through a narrow tunnel out the back of this little cave-like area.

After this, we were brought back to the point where we came into the canyon bed and had climbed back up to the path, and from there we walked back along the canyon. Last year things were getting muddy so once we crossed the bridge back to the parking lot, we needed to wash our rubber boots in the cold river.  Then the bus took us all back to downtown Jasper.

The Maligne Canyon Icewalk is totally worth checking out. The walk runs during winter as long as the weather is conducive to keeping the river frozen - if it is too warm or the weather is bad, it can shorten the season for this.