Our Story
Since 1987, we’ve been guiding guests through Jasper’s rivers, valleys, and wildlife, sharing authentic adventures crafted with care and expertise.
Wild & Authentic
We create meaningful connections between guests, guides, and Jasper’s wilderness, offering unforgettable experiences rooted in safety, storytelling, and care.
Safety & Expertise
Our guides combine decades of local experience with rigorous safety standards, ensuring every rafting trip, wildlife tour, and hike is both thrilling and secure.
Authentic Adventures
From wild rivers to wildlife sightings, our experiences are crafted to connect guests with Jasper’s raw beauty, creating memories that last a lifetime.
Our Story
Our guides are the heart of Maligne Adventures. Led by co-owners Trevor and Craig, each guide is trained to share their expertise, local knowledge, and love of Jasper. We empower our guides to interpret each tour authentically, creating experiences that are as unique as the rivers, valleys, and wildlife we explore.
Valley of the Wicked River
It all began in 1987 at Maligne Lake, the hub of adventure in Jasper National Park. Visitors came for the Maligne Lake Boat Cruise, horseback riding, guided hikes, fishing trips, and rafting on the Maligne River. It was the heyday of exploration, and the spirit of adventure was everywhere. Into this world stepped Rick Kennedy and Pat Crowley, who founded Maligne River Adventures, setting the stage for a legacy of outdoor experiences that would grow over decades.
By the mid-1990s, two young guides arrived who would shape the future of the company. Trevor Lescard came from Ontario in 1995 to work as a boat driver at Maligne Lake, where he first met Pat Crowley. Craig McCarthy joined in 1997 from New Brunswick to guide rafting trips and went on to experience the Maligne River’s final rafting season in 1998. From their earliest days in Jasper, both Trevor and Craig were drawn to the region’s rivers, valleys, and wildlife, carrying with them a passion for guiding that would define their careers.
“It’s cliché, but when you’re out every day on the trails and rivers, you still catch yourself looking around and thinking, wow… I can’t believe this is my office. Seeing it through a guest’s eyes really brings it home. There’s nothing quite like the very first time you see these mountains.”— Craig
Two Guides with Big Dreams
Around the same time, Trevor and Craig embarked on a new endeavour, launching Overlander Trekking—a single-van operation offering summer guided hikes, fishing trips, and backcountry adventures. In 1999, through their connection with Pat Crowley, they also acquired the Maligne Canyon Icewalks, expanding their offerings into the winter season.
Meanwhile, after the Maligne River closure, the rafting company began exploring other Jasper rivers, including the Fraser River—offering some of the best whitewater in Western Canada. With these changes, Maligne River Adventuresbecame Maligne Rafting Adventures.
In 2009, Trevor and Craig’s dedication and vision came full circle when they purchased Maligne Rafting Adventures. They merged it with Overlander Trekking to form Maligne Adventures, a company built on decades of guiding expertise and a commitment to authentic, small-team experiences.
Where we are today
Today, Trevor leads sightseeing and wildlife tours, bringing guests closer to Jasper’s valleys, lakes, and incredible wildlife. Craig oversees all rafting operations, ensuring each river trip balances excitement, safety, and connection to the natural world. Together, they have built a culture where guides are not just following a script—they are empowered to interpret their knowledge, share their experiences, and connect with guests in meaningful ways.
“We don’t hire voices—we encourage individuality.”— Craig
Through every evolution—from a single-van trekking operation to a multi-river rafting company and interpretive tour operator—one thing has remained constant: Maligne Adventures is still run by the same two owners, still small, still authentic, and still deeply connected to Jasper.
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The spirit of discovery
The name Maligne carries more than history—it reflects place, adventure, and the spirit of discovery that first drew people to these valleys. And why is it Jasper’s best rafting and adventure specialist? Every trip—whether on the Fraser River or exploring wildlife through the Maligne Valley—is guided by people who know the land intimately and care deeply for its preservation. We acknowledge that these rivers and valleys sit on the traditional lands of the Cree, Nakota, and other Indigenous peoples.
“For over two decades, we’ve been showing off Jasper, which has become our home. We still run the company the way we’d want to work for it.”— Trevor
At its heart, Maligne Adventures is about relationships—between guides and guests, guides and the land, and among the team itself. It’s about passing down knowledge, fostering trust, and creating experiences that last a lifetime. And just like the rivers we navigate, the story of Maligne Adventures continues to flow—carrying with it the spirit of adventure, connection, and authenticity that has defined us since 1987.
Meet the Team
Trevor Lescard
Trevor arrived in Jasper in 1995 planning to stay a season—and never really left. He began as a boat driver on Maligne Lake before moving into guiding and eventually co-founding Overlander Trekking, leading trips throughout the Canadian Rockies. Over the years, his experience also took him further afield, spending many seasons with Frontiers North guiding polar bear tours in Churchill. A certified ACMG Hiking Guide and professional member of the Interpretive Guides Association, Trevor combines hands-on expertise with decades of leadership. Today, as General Manager of Maligne Adventures, he also oversees the guide team while occasionally stepping back into the field. A guide first and a manager second, his level-headed, personal, and grounded approach shapes both team and guest experience. He’s raised a family in Jasper, spending winters skiing and summers fishing, biking, or exploring trails with his two boys. Nature still surprises him—like the time a beaver appeared out of nowhere while fly fishing at Medicine Lake. “Nature can make up new rules when it wants,” he says, laughing—and that mindset carries through in how he leads, creating an environment where guides and guests feel at ease, learning, while experiencing the mountains for themselves.
Craig McCarthy
Growing up in rural New Brunswick, Craig learned early that nature was both playground and classroom—a love for rivers, forests, and wide-open spaces that still shapes his life today. Arriving in Jasper in 1997, he guided rafting trips during the last summer of the Maligne River and went on to build a career leading everything from day trips to multi-day wilderness adventures in the Rockies and beyond, including embarking on epic commercial expeditions like a 21-day rafting journey through the Grand Canyon. A history major and widely traveled, Craig brings curiosity, precision, and a down-to-earth ease to everything he does. Craig holds an ACMG Day Hiking Guide certification, a BC Trip Leader Rafting license, professional interpretive guide status with the IGA, Wilderness First Aid certification, and Swift Water Rescue training, and has taught group management courses for over 20 years. As co-owner and Operations Manager of Maligne Adventures, he leads the rafting side of the business with calm expertise, training guides to be confident, safe, and professional while letting their personality shine and keeping the Fun front and centre for guests. After a day on the river, it’s not uncommon to see him cycling 100 km round-trip up a mountain road or hiking with his dog, still chasing the sense of freedom the outdoors has always given him.
Land Acknowledgement
We respectfully acknowledge that our tours operate on Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 lands, as well as the traditional territories of the Anishinabe, Aseniwuche Winewak, Dene-zaa, Nêhiyawak, Secwépemc, Stoney Nakoda, Mountain Métis, and Métis peoples.
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