Tues. 15th September ‘26
Today, according to Claude, is the single best driving day of the trip along the Icefields Parkway with 13 stops listed for us to make and 290km to drive. “We are not doing all that” I say and strike out the two 5km walks for a start. As for the rest, we’ll see how the time goes, but to give ourselves the best chance we set the alarm for 7. The day starts overcast as we head for breakfast and the packed lunch we had ordered as there is nowhere worth stopping for food en-route. We do well to be on the road by 8:30, just before the rain starts.
We swiftly drive past Herbert Lake as the early morning reflections are not happening. The road climbs up the Bow Pass, which reaches a height of about 2,000m. By the time we reach Bow Lake it is lightly snowing and so we manage some photos of snow-covered trees and then head down the path to see the lake. Here we do manage some amazing reflections of the mountain peaks on the far shore. It is all so photogenic, and we manage to take over 100 pictures between us today, so that will keep me busy reviewing them and picking out suitable ones for our blog.
The road is now in the clouds and so sadly we do not see the full panoramic scenery of the pass. Indeed, when we get to the viewpoint over Peyto Lake and Glacier, we cannot see any of the view. The weather does not deter the tourists (including us) who traipse through the slush to reach the viewpoint. I suppose many are like us who only have today to see the view, so it has to be done whatever the weather. The turquoise lake peeked briefly through the clouds but no sign of the glacier. The path to and from the viewpoint is quite steep and the remaining slush made it slippery.
My highlight of the day was the visit to the Athabasco Glacier and Columbia Icefield. By this time we had descended below cloud level and the sun had come out. On the path up to see the glacier there were posts like 1890, 1934, 1982 and 2006. It turns out these are not altitude markers but are marking how much further down the track the glacier came in those years. The glacier has been retreating for much longer that Global Warming has been highlighted as an issue. There are organised walks onto the glacier, but we have not signed up for this here. It would not match the trip we had in 2012 to Perito Moreno in Patagonia.
The next three stops were waterfalls. Each were interesting in different ways, but I think Tangle Falls were my favourite cascading down at the roadside. Sunwapta Falls were at the bottom of a gorge similar to Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park. As for Athabasca Falls, they were health and safety gone mad. The waterfall was surrounded by different manmade walkways which obscured any decent photos and access to the spots we wanted were completely fenced off.
By the time we left Athabasca Falls we were only half an hour from Jasper, and we were glad to get there and check in to our hotel for the night and relax. Well, Agoda had completely messed up our booking and had made two separate bookings and only paid the hotel for one of the two nights. As the hotel is fully booked, we have to change rooms after the first night. The upside was that the booking was for a suite which was enormous and very comfortable. Luckily Domino’s delivered to the hotel so after using the laundry and getting more blog done we were able to relax in front of our TV with pizza and Okanagan wine that we have been carrying with us. Although the weather started disappointingly this morning, we reflect on how quickly it changed and how lucky we have been with the weather so far.