Icefields Parkway

Hi all,

We had a delicious dinner at a place called Earl’s in Jasper last night, which had lovely upper level views. Afterwards we headed back to pack up while we had some AFL on in the background.

This morning I woke to a message from a friend asking if we were anywhere near the wildfires in Alberta. I assured him we hadn’t heard anything about them, and then when we left the room to set off about 9am we got a big shock when we could smell smoke immediately and the whole town of Jasper was shrouded in wildfire smoke. We couldn’t find much information online for tourists (it all used freeway numbers which we aren’t familiar with) but thankfully it seems they were north and east of Jasper and where we were headed. We hope everyone involved is OK.

Our first stop for the day was Athabasca Falls, and it was pretty hazy here. Nevertheless, the falls were powerful and impressive. So were Sunwapta Falls at our second stop. These two stops and the rest of our drive today were along the famous Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper, which has been rated by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful drives in the world, and I can see why! The road was constructed in the 1930s during the Great Depression, when the Canadian government had a project going called the ‘Make Work’ project and paid 600 men across the country $1 per day to work on parks, roads and trails during what was a difficult time. For the first nine years of its construction, the road went from Jasper to Saskatchewan Crossing as sheer manpower was all that was used. But come 1939 when many men had to go to the war, machines were used and the second half was finished in just two years.

At the start of the day we were concerned the haze would mean we wouldn’t see much, but we just counted ourselves lucky we weren’t right near a wildfire. Luckily though, we were wrong. The endless Rocky Mountains surrounding us either side of the highway must have blocked the smoke because after about 30 minutes of pretty thick smoke haze this ended and the views were simply magnificent. No matter what I say here I won’t be able to adequately capture how incredible the mountainous views were that we saw today. I would say I can only really compare them to the train journeys Mum and I did in Switzerland, and maybe some drives in Norway, but the scenery here was so vast and endless that I think it was the best. We were also blessed once again with mostly sunny and beautiful weather from this point on, despite the forecast saying otherwise. We are certainly being looked after weather wise over here!

At 11am, we arrived just on time for our ice explorer tour of the Columbia Ice Field, a 165 square kilometre ice field that feeds six glaciers in the area. We were on the first tour of the season, and I couldn’t believe it back in March when I looked it up and it coincidentally opened for the first time since October on the day we were driving through. We were taken on a bus and then onto an ice explorer. The first explorer of this kind was built in 1981 and they now have a fleet of 21 of them here. They’re worth $1.45m Australian each, with each of the six tyres per vehicle costing nearly $7000 Australian. The tyres were nearly as tall as me!

The explorer took us up onto the Athabaskan Glacier, hence the thick tyres required. I’m lucky enough that I think this is the fourth glacier I’ve now walked on - here, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand. Unfortunately people in the future won’t be so lucky because they’re receding at an alarming rate. We were shocked to see that the bus journey we had to take was where the glacier went to 100 years ago, right up to the edge of the now highway. This particular glacier has receded 1.5km and lost 2/3 of its volume since 1844, directly corresponding with the Industrial Revolution. Why is it receding? Any water vapour here turns to snow, but the process of firnification that turns this snow into glacial ice (and gives the beautiful blue colour) requires 40m of snow to create 1m of this ice, and this process takes about five years. Due to rising temperatures, the snow is melting too quickly for this to happen. The scary part is that 1/3 of Canadians rely on the Ice Field’s glaciers as a source of water, whether that be for drinking or for food growing. It’s predicted in 60-80 years it’ll be gone, so who knows what will happen then. In some places we could see fallen soil and rock from the mountains, which Alyssa our guide told us is a good thing as it insulates the snow from the sun and stops it melting as easily.

Anyway, after learning about that sad fate of the glacier we got to enjoy its beauty up close once the bus was parked. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful blue colour peaking through of glacial ice, and the sun coming out right as we were there. We stared up at the ice ledge and the mountain peaks and enjoyed it. We even put my drink bottle to the ground and drank some glacial water which was nice and refreshing.

Once back at the Visitor Centre, another bus took us to the Sky Walk which was built in 2014 and is 280m up and 35m out with a glass floor. The sun was out again and the view was great!

We ate lunch in the car before heading off again. We stopped at a few lookouts, the Weeping Wall which was a series of waterfalls running down a cliff face, a beautiful green lake which I think was called Waterfowl Lake and then Peyto Lake. At Peyto Lake we got to use the crampons that we brought from home, which are stretchy and fit over your shoes, and have metal spikes on the bottom. They give you traction on snowy and icy paths. We were glad we had them here, as we walked up and back to the lookout with ease despite the path being covered in snow. Lots of others were wearing insanely inappropriate footwear and we sped past them while they were slipping around all over the place. The lookout view was beautiful. Peyto Lake was frozen, but you could see the blue colour that will come out in Summer beginning to our left. The sun shone once again and we could see mountains as far as we could look out. Very lucky again!

On our last section of highway today past the Icefields Parkway, there were fences either side of the road and we saw wildlife bridges over the freeway. What a great idea to make sure bears, moose etc don't get hit by cars! We then arrived in Banff and checked in at our hotel. We got an upgrade and a bottle of wine due to saying it was our honeymoon, and our room is really comfortable. We are off for dinner at a Greek restaurant tonight that a friend here recommended.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox