May 23rd: Jasper Park Lodge Hole #3

Jasper Park Lodge Hole #3 "Signal Dip" 454-yard Par4 Handicap 3

A bling dogleg to the right. The long hitter can challenge the inside of the dogleg and try to carry the trees. Watching the flight of the tee ball against the bank of the trees on the far hill is most satisfying. Thompson perfectly benched the green complex into the hillside. Three requires a big drive to clear the large slope in the middle of the fairway. Drives that reach the upper plateau will leave players with a difficult uphill approach to a well-protected green. Tee shots that hit into the slop will make reaching the green in two nearly impossible.


Jasper Park Lodge - The Drive:
The 287-kilometre route that snakes through the heart of the Rockies, past ancient glaciers and countless snow-topped mountains, through three deep river valleys and finally into Jasper National Park, adjoining Banff National Park to the north. It was here, at the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course that Stanley Thompson first made his mark.

(Cirrus Mountain and Weeping Wall from view above "Big Bend" -- apart of that grueling 3-hr jaunt we are forced to make)

Stops Along the Way - Mistaya Canyon:

About 70 km (43 mi.) north of Lake Louise, a short path leads down from the car-park to the narrow, winding Mistaya Canyon ("mistaya" is Indian for "grizzly bear"), with its virtually vertical rockfaces and characteristic "pot-holes". This canyon, like many in the Canadian Rockies is the result of erosion from the glacier-fed rivers that cut through the limestone rock. It's possible to walk to the edge of the canyon and watch the water rush by below. This is a popular photography spot.