Icefield Parkway Revisited

 

The Parkway is a 232 kilometre stretch of highway that some say is the most scenic stretch of highway in Canada.  It passes through both Banff National Park and the smaller Jasper National Park linking Lake Louise and the town of Jasper. Jasper has been one the few places we have returned to more than once, four times in fact. It was on one of these trips that we stumbled across the Parkway.

It was 2002 and we were trying to deal with “Empty Nest Syndrome”. With no kids at home and time on our hands, we headed out north on the Yellowhead Highway to Jasper for a four day stay where we filled our hiking boots with awe inspiring hikes…..

 

 

…..and a single track bike ride along the Athabasca River that got our hearts pumping.

 

On one of our hikes we met some folks from a local hiking club and joined them for lunch where they were planning a day hike to the Athabasca Glacier. Liking what we heard we asked if we could join them. The hike was planned for the morning of the day we were heading home. Directions to the glacier took us down Highway #93 a route we were not familiar with so were bit hesitant to go, but throwing caution to the wind we joined them.

 

It became one of our most memorable travel memories.

 

It also a meant a longer drive home but worth every minute.

 

So 23 years later found me planning an adventure to Banff National Park for our JGD. During my research I kept coming across write ups on the “Icefield Parkway” and realized that it was the route we had driven in 2002. In our haste to get home then as well as the cloudy weather, we missed or ignored much of what the Parkway had to offer.

 

With the attraction of seeing the Glacier again we added it to our “must see” list. We based ourselves in the city of Golden about 100 kilometres from the town of Banff. The cost of hotels in Banff are obscene while costs in Golden were just a bit smutty but it added 200 kilometres to our visits to the Park and Parkway entrance.

 

Tip: Plan your trip on a sunny day if possible. Better to see all the glaciers in mountains. We left Golden in rain and heavy low lying clouds. Thankfully we experienced some sunny breaks allowing us to enjoy Athabasca and all the other glaciers, glacial lakes and waterfalls as we made our way back to Golden. 

 

The effects of climate warming were made very apparent. We are standing in front of a sign which indicated where the face of the glacier was in 2006. It recedes about 5 metres a year and has shrunk over 1.5 kilometres in the last 125 years with much of that in the last 25 years. 

Peyto Lake is a glacial lake. Glacial lakes get their blue colour from glacial rock flour. The flour is created by the glaciers as they melt creating a powdery sediment. The sediment is suspended in the water and causes the blue/turquoise hues, 

Sometimes the water can reflect in a green hue which is caused by algae and can be seen in Lake Louise. 

We stopped for lunch and followed a trail along a raging river that led us to what looked like a cool keyhole cut into the cliff. No signage but believe it might have been the Bow river. 

Mistaya Canyon required a bit of a hike. Definitely worth a stop. If you want a clean photograph with no people, come early. It was a busy place 

Our final stop of the day was in Yoho National Park and the Natural Bridge. The bridge is showing its age as it requires some jumping to cross it and of course their were idiots doing just that. 

Sadly my photographic skills were unable to capture what my eye saw along the Parkway. .But believe me, it is worth the effort to get there. Especially if the day is sunny.