We camped at Jasper and hiked a number of trails in the park.    One of the hikes we chose was Verdant Pass.    The trailhead is at the parking lot next to Cavell Lake to the northeast of the mountain.  We hiked past the end of Cavell Lake and continued southwest above the Astoria River.    After passing the slopes of Mount Sorrow, we could see up into a side valley.    We turned at a hard-to-spot junction and started to climb into Verdant Pass.    We hiked up to the top of the pass and had lunch.    We returned by the same route.   On a day with better weather, we might have explored some of the tarns below the summits.

When we hiked past Cavell Lake, we started a partial loop route around Mt. Edith Cavell.

We enjoyed the meadows in the pass with cliffs rising above us on both sides.

We returned by the same trail, a 19 km hike.    Since the route has limited views if there is some weather, it would be best to do this hike on a clear day with better views of the surrounding mountains.   We did enjoy the meadows and would do this hike again in the middle of summer on a sunny day.

We took a few photos and have loaded them into a Google Photos album (link – Verdant Pass).

An embedded slideshow of the album’s photos is also included here:

Some additional notes:

• The trail up the Astoria River continues to the Tonquin Valley.    We have skied in to the Amethyst Lakes area twice in winter.    We also backpacked up on skis and stayed in the Alpine Club of Canada Hut on Chrome Lake before mountaineering on the Great Divide slopes.
• The trail through Verdant Pass can be hiked right through and down to the Whirlpool River, suitable for a two vehicle system.
• Verdant Pass is also a good spot for ascents of Verdant Peak and several other challenging hikes in the area.