After our stopovers at the Cold Sulfur Spring and Emerald Pond, we continued on our way to Miette Hot Springs, a modern, commercially developed hot springs, built in 1986, in Alberta’s Jasper National Park. It features the hottest hot springs in the Canadian Rockies. Its beautiful location and luxurious water make it one of the top things to do in Jasper National Park and one of Alberta’s best kept secrets.
Check out “Cold Sulfur Spring” and “Emerald Pond”
Offering visitors a view of the surrounding Fiddle River Valley, it has two outdoor hot pools and two cold plunge pools of different temperatures. From the mountain, the natural hot springs water flows at 54°C (129°F) and is then cooled to a comfortable temperature of approximately 37 and 40 ºC (98 and 104 ºF) as it enters the hot springs pool. The top five minerals found in the Miette Hot Springs are sulphate (1130 mgs./l), calcium (307 mgs./l), bicarbonate (124 mgs./l), magnesium (56 mgs./l) and sodium (10.5 mgs./l).
From the current parking area, we walked along the 600 m. long and winding Source of the Springs Trail, featuring boardwalks, to check out the original Miette Aquacourt and the source of the spring itself. The original Miette Aquacourt, an abandoned historic bathhouse and pool site, was built, together with an automobile road, as a federal relief program project, opening up work to several hundred men, during the Great Depression.
Construction started in 1934 and it was opened in 1938, operating until September 1984 when it was closed, due to rock instability on the surrounding slopes, old equipment, poor access, overcrowding and aging concrete, and replaced by the new facility located 1 km. down the road. Its old pool basin is now filled with trees and dirt.
Upon crossing the bridge over Sulphur Creek, we saw the natural Sulphur Creek hot spring, the largest and fastest flowing of the three springs in area. The water source, coming from about 1,500 ft. down the mountain, was very hot (54°C) and had a very strong sulfur smell.
This source spring was first used by local First Nations communities who, in turn, introduced them, during the 19th century, to members of the Hudson’s Bay and North West Companies. In the 1910s, a crude pack trail was created, providing visitors with access via foot and horseback. By 1919, a rough trail and modest structures such as a log bathhouse and two sweat houses had been built by coal miners working in the nearby coal mining camp of Pocahontas down the valley.
Miette Hot Springs: Miette Rd., Miette Hot Springs, Alberta T0E 1E0. Admission: $19.75 (adults) and $17.25 (youth and seniors) for a single entry. Tickets are sold first-come, first-served in person, and a separate national park pass is also required to visit the area. Coordinates: 53°7′47.507″N 117°46′13.876″W.
How to Get There: Located between the towns of Hinton and Jasper, the complex is at the end of the 17-km. (11 mi.) seasonal Miette Road off of Highway 16, near the east gate of the park.