Lower Maligne Canyon Falls

Within Jasper National Park take the Yellowhead Highway east from the town of Jasper to the Maligne Lake Road and follow it for 6km to the signed parking area. The waterfall is found below the 3rd bridge along the trail, approximately 1km from the parking lot.Maligne Canyon represents a geologic oddity not seen elsewhere in the greater Pacific Northwest but is fairly common in the northern Rocky Mountains. Limestone is a prevalent rock in this area, and due to its easily soluble nature Karst Topography – a general term for the presence of sinkholes and underground rivers and passages – is common in the region. What happens at Maligne Canyon is the Maligne River flows out of Medicine Lake, about 15 kilometers upstream as a full size river, but very quickly disappears into seeps in the ground and completely vanishes from the surface not far from the lake for most of the year. The smaller streams that feed the valley below that point rebuild the river by the time it reaches the top of the canyon, so the river is more like a small stream where it enters the gorge. As the river drops down the canyon, however, it intersects the bedrock layers where the underground river flows, and several large underground streams join and greatly amplify the flow. In the 2 kilometer walk from the top to the bottom of the canyon, the river increases in volume tenfold. The lower falls in the canyon occur just upstream of the third bridge - which is approximately midway through the gorge - and drop about 30 feet in two steps. This is perhaps the most photographed spot in the canyon thanks to both a bridge framing the scene (remarkably, it doesn’t detract from the landscape much at all), as well as the eye-level vantage point, rather than looking straight down like at the second falls. Shortly downstream, the canyon constricts again and dozens of trees lay fallen across the 10 foot wide chasm, obscuring the depths of the defile (which may or may not harbor one more small waterfall).