Jasper is welcoming visitors again by embracing its fire

Atop the Jasper SkyTram, tree trunks blackened by last year's fires are visible in the valley below.

Standing at the top of Whistlers Mountain in the gusting wind, looking out over the Rockies stretching to the horizon, I can see the entire charred path of last year’s devastating wildfire in Jasper National Park.

On the ride up the Jasper SkyTram, an aerial cabin that takes you more than 2,200 metres up the mountain in Jasper National Park, I wasn’t sure how I would feel looking at the fire’s aftermath.

But standing at the summit, I felt a mixture of wonder and terror. Blackened tree trunks are everywhere in the valley below. The fire destroyed 358 of the town’s 1,113 structures. More outside the townsite were also lost, including 12 of 121 structures at the famed Jasper Park Lodge and