People do strange things when there’s a full moon.

Like shuffle single file along Trail 1 in the dark to get to Old Fort Point and admire the view.

Tuesday night, volunteer interpreter Kerry Lee Morris-Cormier led her first full moon hike, and it went off without a hitch. A group of ten followed her up the trail and listened intently as she spoke about plants and wildlife in the park. Her confidence and poise would convince anyone she’d been doing this route for years.

Morris-Cormier’s shining eyes and beaming smile allayed any nervousness about venturing out into the dark. “There’s a real safety in numbers, and a real sense of adventure,” she said. 

Early autumn is a great time of year to go on one of these hikes, as there’s a short time between when the sun sets and the harvest moon rises, giving adventure-seekers plenty of light to work with.

The pack traveled the Old Fort Point loop counter-clockwise, timed so they arrived to the top just as the moon emerged over Signal Mountain.

Pauses along the way showed Morris-Cormier’s love of the outdoors. “In the fall, you don’t get the beauty of Maple Trees here, but the Trembling Aspens make up for it,” she said. The group learned about chlorophyll in the bark of the Aspens, that elk like to snack on and that allow the trees to photosynthesize without leaves. “There’s a beautiful balance in nature.”

After living in Jasper for more than a decade, Morris-Cormier has always wanted to give something back but she only recently found time in her packed multiple-job Jasper schedule to do it. “With a day of work then going to Hinton for groceries, you get on the trail and everything is right,” she said. 

Because a number of visitors are unaware, Morris-Cormier will take any chance she can get to talk about the fragility of the park environment. “I hope it makes a little difference,” she said.

Her passion pours through. “I brought star maps and all this stuff, but you don’t need them, it’s just so beautiful,” she said. “I love it.”.