The Snake Indian Falls are huge remote waterfalls in Jasper National Park. They are located on the North Boundary trail and are not visited by many people each year. There are many reasons for this. First of all the road to access, the trailhead is the celestine road which is only open in summer and operates on a one-way time schedule. A 4WD or at least a high clearance 2WD is required for this road. I once took my minivan up there and we thought we got a puncture and there were a few moments when I did know if the little car would make it. So please learn from my mistake and take a high clearance car and/or a 4WD if you have access to one.
The trailhead is at the end of the road, from there you can either hike or mountain bike to the falls. We decided to complete the trip as a 50km day trip and mountain bike the trail. There are backcountry campgrounds along the route and some people do choose to hike and camp. The trail is an old road and you spend 90% of the time in the forest so there are very limited views. Personally, I wouldn’t want to hike this road and even though it was a long day on the bike I was happy for it to be a day trip.
When we went it was raining all day and only cleared up our way out. The amount of water and mud on the trail did slow us down and what we expected would be a 5 hours day ended up being about a 7 hour day. From all of the research I had done prior to the trip, I was led to believe that the trail was ‘virtually flat’... do not fall for this! The trail has long gradual hills that I believe would grade it as a blue trail, they aren’t particularly steep but they are long.
My other piece of advice would be to contact the Parks Canada trail office in Jasper or visit the Information Centre before completing the trail and to check if the trees have been cleared for that season. In my experience trail crew would go through and clear the trees later in the summer because the North Boundary trail is not accessible until late in the summer. If you are planning to bike the trail then the fewer trees blocking your path the more enjoyable it will be.
The only river crossing we had to do was near the Shalebanks campground/warden station. It was a rainy year and the water was high when we completed it however it only came up to our knees which was manageable when carrying our bikes over the river.
I would highly recommend this day trip if you are looking for a full-day mountain bike adventure that takes you into an uncommon part of Jasper National Park. I didn't have a fancy mountain bike just my regular hard tail and this was enough for the trai.
