5/27/18 – Jasper Natl Park

The road from Lake Louise to Jasper is called the “Icefields Parkway”. It goes past a lot of mountains with their own personal glaciers, some of which probably have their own names.  Icefields are a bunch of interconnected glaciers.  

Since I don’t really know how to tell the difference between snow on a mountain and a glacier (unless you wait until summer to see if it's still there), I was happy to see this turnout had a name:  Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint. Apparently at one point there were 3 toes to the glacier; now one is gone so there are just 2.  You can see it on the far left.

The lake in front of it is Bow Lake.

I’m glad we’ve already been to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and were impressed by it.  After these big pointy peaks, I’m not so sure…

The highlight of the Icefield Parkway is the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier, which is one of the toes of the Columbia Icefield.  It's the most visited glacier in North America because it's so easily accessible. You can actually ride a bus to the base, then go on guided hikes on the glacier, should you be dressed properly and are so inclined. 

There’s a big Visitor Center they call the Columbia Icefields Discovery Centre (no, that’s not a typo, it’s Canadian for “Center”.)  We walked up all those stairs, checked out the prices on the tours (next trip to Canada we'll do some of this), looked in the gift shop where I discovered I love ammolite, then went back outside.

Besides learning a lot about glaciers and mountains, you can buy tickets to ride on the Ice Explorers (huge vehicles designed for glacier travel) that take you out to the foot of the glacier) or walk out on the Glacier Skywalk.  On another trip to Canada maybe we’ll do that…the bus thing, not the glass sidewalk thing.

By the way, this is home, even though the neighborhood has changed.

Back on the parkway, just past the Discovery Centre and next to the highway is the Glacier Skywalk,sticking out into the canyon.  There's a Skywalk out over the Grand Canyon--and I'm not interested in that either!  I can (barely) stand at the edge of a tall building or canyon and look down.  I don't think I could handle it standing on something I could see through.  This one isn't even over the glacier.

Pictures on Flickr:  Jasper National Park