Travel: Gluten Free Jasper National Park, Canada

This gluten free Jasper National Park guide is an extract from my full Canadian Rockies guide – take a look for more gluten free Canada travel tips! Or read on for gluten free Jasper National Park.

Jasper National Park was one of our favourite places in Canada. Less touristy than neighbouring Banff, but just as beautiful and with some spectacular trails.

We had our five month old daughter with us so we weren’t able to do any huge trails, but we explored as much as we could. I recommend Maligne Canyon for a brief albeit busy hike (it is very popular), the peaceful trails around Maligne lake and our absolutely favourite was the Valley of the Five Lakes trail. It was stunning! Also very manageable with a baby.

If you are driving down to Banff, take a stop at Sunwapta Falls as that was another lovely little hike and the cafe there has some gluten free options.

We stayed south of Jasper itself in a cabin at Jasper House Bungalows (excellent!) and mainly catered for ourselves. As always though I was on the look out for gluten free coeliac friendly options and I have included a round up here.

Jasper

Syrah’s of Jasper: a restaurant with a menu that is almost completely (naturally) gluten free. Gourmet food with a Canadian theme. Open in the evenings and remember to book as this place is popular.

Downstream Restaurant & Lounge: a great spot for coeliacs, they have a gluten free menu band a coeliac certified kitchen. They only use gluten free flour and a dedicated gluten free flour. When we had a look nearly everything on the menu was gluten free or had a gluten free option, wonderful to see so much choice. I wish we had had the time to eat here!

ALBA Restaurant: as my daughter is called Alba we had to check this place out! They have gluten free pasta available and various other dishes are naturally or can be made gluten free.

Patricia Street Deli: an ideal spot to grab a sandwich or wrap for your hike. They have gluten free bread and wraps and if you tell them you are coeliac they will change their gloves and clean the surfaces and utensils. Very good processes.

Cassios Italian Restaurant: gluten free pasta and cheesecake for dessert. Their menu is marked up to show the gluten free options and they have loads of choices – around 70% of the dishes were gluten free or could be made gluten free.

Coco’s Cafe: a locally run cafe that state they specialise in coeliac friendly food. The menu marked up to show which dishes can be made gluten free and they also have lots of vegetarian and vegan options. HOWEVER, please note I found some negative reviews online about how good their processes actually are, so please ask questions if you plan on eating here.

Maligne Lake

The cafe at Maligne Lake had a nice selection of gluten free options. Not tonnes, but I was able to get a hot bowl of chilli for lunch and a gluten free chocolate brownie. We loved the location of the cafe and I could have sat there all day, gazing out across the lake.

I highly recommend kayaking or canoeing on the lake, we loved it…even though I had to do two mid-lake nappy changes. Not ideal!!! They have baby lifejackets available at the canoe hire shack.

On the drive down to Maligne you go right past Medecine Lake, which is worth checking out too, even if just for a quick photo.