Jasper resident spots two lynx crossing road near Marmot Basin

A Jasper woman got an up-close look at a couple of rare big cats this week.

Laura Dzikowski was driving down Marmot Road Tuesday afternoon after a day of skiing when she spotted two lynx crossing the snowy road near Portal Creek.

She pulled out her phone as the lynx — presumably a mother and her cub, she said — crossed right in front of her vehicle.

"They popped out onto the road and walked across the road, kind of came in front of us and went up the embankment and off into the woods," Dzikowski said.

"We just kind of pulled off to the side and took a couple pictures and got kind of lucky."

She immediately posted the footage on Facebook, where it caught the attention of fellow wildlife lovers.

Dzikowski, a nurse who's lived in Jasper for about seven years, said she's seen lynx four times — and always within a couple hundred metres of that same spot on Marmot road.

But she's never caught them on camera that close.

"If you ever want to see a lynx, that's the place," she said.

"These shots, getting them kind of sauntering across the road and looking right at me and that kind of thing, that's kind of rare, so I think that's kind of exciting for people."