Jasper is open to visitors again — but what can tourists expect?

Landon Shepherd, sporting his yellow Parks Canada jacket and blue safety helmet, stood in a campground in Jasper National Park, beside a wooden pole with the metal remnants of a bear bin wrapped around it. Patches of green grass were starting to sprout on the earth nearby, juxtaposed against a desolate landscape of fallen trees and others standing like burned matchsticks. The trees lining the mountainsides in the background were torched too.

"This was not green even a week ago; there were just a couple of odd plants. Since then, a bunch of things have sprouted up," said Shepherd, a Parks Canada incident commander, while guiding a media tour through a couple of campgrounds on Sept. 7.

"In a month and a half, we've already got really good ground cover — even in a site that was stripped so severely as this." The Jasper wildfire is the worst to hit the national park in more than a century. Here's what we know An immense wildfire — and the storm it created — swept through the national park nearly two months ago, burning accommodations, landmarks and attractions to various degrees.

Eventually, the flames reached the Jasper townsite, destroying about one-third of its buildings. WATCH | Jasper re-opens to visitors — but what can tourists expect?: Radio Active 7:57 Jasper balancing act: rebuilding the community and economy together We speak to Tyler Riopel, the CEO of Tourism Jasper, about responsible tourism. Recovery is ongoing, but visitors were recently allowed back into J.