Sunwapta Falls

Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

About Sunwapta Falls

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Sunwapta Falls was another one of those waterfalls (similar to Athabasca Falls) in that we remembered it more for its backdrop than the falls itself.

In fact, as I was sifting through the photos and videos that we took, I easily got the two waterfalls confused since they seemed to be similar in many ways.

Icefields_Parkway_081_09182010 - Sunwapta Falls
Sunwapta Falls

For starters, this waterfall also had a nice mountain backdrop, which we were able to appreciate from a footbridge spanning high above the gorge.

Sunwapta Falls didn’t overwhelm us with its height (said to be 18.5m tall) but it did make up for it with its power as the Sunwapta River was squeezed into that tight gorge.

Indeed, I had read that the word “sunwapta” roughly translated to “turbulent water” or “radiating waves” in the native tongue (which I think belonged to the Stoney First Nations people).

We noticed that the walkways and viewing areas weren’t quite as extensive as that of Athabasca Falls, but we were able to get pretty much all the safe views that we could possibly get in less than 15 minutes from the car park.

Icefields_Parkway_071_09182010 - Looking downstream from the footbridge spanning the deep gorge in front of Sunwapta Falls
Looking downstream from the footbridge spanning the deep gorge in front of Sunwapta Falls

So we treated this attraction as more of a place to stretch and break up the long drive between Banff and Jasper.

Finally, I wanted to call attention to the fact that this wasn’t the only waterfall on the Sunwapta River.

Indeed, there was another waterfall further downstream called the Lower Sunwapta Falls.

Since most of the attention and traffic was for Sunwapta Falls, we were able to get a totally different experience exploring the lower waterfalls.

Icefields_Parkway_183_09212010 - Back at Sunwapta Falls after a couple days of snow blanketed the Canadian Rockies
Back at Sunwapta Falls after a couple days of snow blanketed the Canadian Rockies

Given the presence of the lower waterfall, I’ve even seen this particular waterfall referred to as “Upper Sunwapta Falls” to emphasize that there was indeed another set of falls here.

In any case, we made another writeup for the lower waterfall on a separate page.

Authorities

Sunwapta Falls resides in Jasper National Park near Jasper in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is administered by Parks Canada. For information or inquiries as well as current conditions, visit their website.

Maps and Routing Content are for annual subscribers. See Membership Options.
Content is for subscribers. See Membership Options.
Tagged with: jasper, national park, alberta, canada, waterfall, icefields, canadian rockies, columbia, sunwapta



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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
Read More About Johnny | A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls.