Returning to Jasper National Park: A Secret Key to Writing About Home

A Secret Key: Returning to Jasper National Park

When I began “On Borrowed Roads: Rediscovering Jasper,” I thought I was writing about distance — about what it means to return to Jasper National Park after so long away. I imagined readers who didn’t know the Canadian Rockies or the sound of the Athabasca River breaking free in spring. I wanted to give them that first glimpse — the sweep of peaks, the scent of cold pine, the light that feels like forgiveness.

But when an editor said he wanted it for The Jasper Local, not a glossy travel magazine, everything changed. It felt like being handed a secret key — an invitation to write not for visitors, but for those who call Jasper home.

Writing for locals is different. You stop describing and start listening. You trade spectacle for intimacy. You begin to see what only returning eyes can see: how the mountains hold memory, how a road you once drove without thinking can bring you to tears.

This wasn’t just travel writing — it became a meditation on belonging, on rediscovering the places that built you.

It’s a pleasure to visit Jasper. It’s a privilege to be trusted to write about its backyard.

📖 Read the full piece here: On Borrowed Roads: Rediscovering Jasper