May 16, 2010

Icefields Parkway

 

We got an early start today as we had nearly 200 miles to cover with many potential stops for sightseeing.

The Icefields Parkway goes north along the Canadian Rockies from Lake Louise to Jasper.  It is pretty much nonstop view.  Mountain after mountain after mountain on both sides of the road with glaciers on or between most of them and lakes at their bases connected by rushing mountain rivers.

Much of the Canadian Rockies, of which the Icefields Parkway is just a small (200 mile long  :)  ) section is preserved and managed by a series of seven national parks, five of which border each other.  One of the parks is named Yoho National Park.  Yoho is a Cree Indian word that means WOW!  That pretty much describes everything we have seen for the last week.  WOW!

The rivers that flow along side the parkway often run through wide gravel valley floors.  Where the rivers flow through narrow spots in a valley things get interesting.  The rock here is very hard with veins of softer rock.  Instead of wearing down a broad canyon the rivers follow the thin veins and wear mostly the soft rock.  This results in very narrow, often very deep slot canyons some with very dramatic falls.  It is possible to have an impressive waterfall without a lot of water flowing in to it.  Not so here.  There is a lot of fast moving water moving and falling in a very narrow space.  The sound and power of these falls is amazing

 

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Hard to show the power of this falls in a picture.  That water is dropping nearly 100 feet to the base (out of sight).

 

 

 

 

Another falls that is nearly 100 feet high.

 

 

 

 

At one of the falls we saw our second (live) black bear.

The other big event of our day was a ice bus trip onto the Athabasca Glacier.

About two thirds of the way up the Icefields Parkway the Columbia Icefield sits on top of the mountains to the west.  It is huge.  Larger than some states I think.

 

Model of Columbia Icefield.  The fingers radiating from it are glaciers.  The Athabasca Glacier is in the center of the of the lower edge.  There is a mountain top just to the right of Athabasca Glacer that is completely buried under the icefield.  It is unique in that drainage from its’ slopes flows into three different oceans.

From the Icefield visitor center you can take a tour onto the glacier in a very special vehicle.

Six wheel drive, five foot tires, top speed of 18 km/hr.  Geared to go down and up slopes of greater than 34% (we did it).  Each one costs $1.2 million.

 

Precursor to today’s ice bus.

 

 

 

 

 

The river of white in the center is Athabasca Glacier.

The wall of white at the top is the edge of the Columbia Icefield.

 

 

 

Athabasca Glacier in center of picture.  In the 1840’s the glacier extended down to where the green sign is in the foreground.

 

 

 

 

Our driver was very knowledgeable and gave a running educational dialog on our trip and down the glacier.  Quite interesting.   Riding and standing on a sheet of ice over 100 meters thick was novel.  We’ve now done it.  On to the next thing.