Mt Edith Cavell, Icefields Parkway
Sunwapta Falls, Icefields Pathway
Athabasca Falls, Icefields Pathway
Columbia Icefields, Icefields Parkway
Glacier Skywalk, Icefields Parkway
Coleman Creek area, Icefields Parkway
Corinne on Glacier Skywalk, Icefields Parkway
Waterfowl Lake, Icefields Parkway
Least chipmunk, Peyto Lake
The whole of today was dedicated to travelling the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise. This two hundred kilometres of Highway 93 is appropriately referred to as “the most beautiful road in the world” and today for us, that proved to be undeniably correct.
We left Jasper at around 9.00 in the clearest blue skies with not a single cloud to be seen. This was to be the situation for the whole of the day with mid-afternoon temperatures in the mid-20s.
Stop number one was at the Athabasca Falls where we experienced a ferocious combination of sound and spray from the highest and largest volume waterfall in the Jasper area. The main fall is only 23 m high but the vast volume of water passing through this narrow canyon has carved deeply into the surrounding limestone walls. Where the flow of the Athabasca River has encountered a corner, the massive swirl of water thus produced has carved potholes in the adjacent rock walls.
The noise, the power and the fury of this immense water flow is both frightening and mesmerising. There was a plaque at the top of the waterfall, dedicated to a 24 year old man who foolishly climbed over the safety fence and then slipped on the wet rocks and plunged down into this giant washing machine. His tortured and flailed body was recovered the next day, downstream.
The waters of the Athabasca River continue on northwards towards Inuvik eventually reach the Arctic Ocean about two years after passing over this waterfall!
Our next tourist stop was at the Sunwapta Falls. The meltwaters of the Sunwapta River have carved their way through limestone forming a sculpted but incredibly narrow canyon that forces the large volume of water to create a violent torrent where the immense power and noise of the flow are frightening. The spectacle of this incredible waterfall is from a footbridge directly above the narrowest section of the canyon below. After leaving the falls the Sunwapta River leads down to join the Athabasca River in the deep ‘U’ shaped valley below.
On both sides of the Icefields Parkway were huge mountains and the highway has numerous stopping points for getting a better view of these giant sentinels. Probably the most striking of the numerous peaks just south of Jasper was Mt. Edith Cavell, a 3363 m snow capped summit. With bright sunshine and not a cloud to be seen, we could well understand why this mountain is regarded as the park’s most distinctive and physically appealing peak. It was named after the WWI British heroine nurse who was executed by the Germans after helping to smuggle over 200 wounded allied soldiers into neutral Holland.
The stark beauty of this mountain peak is awe-inspiring.
The next section of the road heading south follows a seemingly never ending spectacle of rivers and mountains. The western side of the highway was a near continual mountain range with jagged peaks such as Mts. Gong, Gec, Mushroom and Kitchener all over 3000 m with numerous glaciers sending streams of water down into the river valley that the road follows.
At the half-way mark we stopped at the Visitors’ Centre. This point marks the division between the Jasper and Banff National Parks.
We spent an hour doing the Glacier Skywalk where a cliff edge walkway leads to a platform where a semi-circular glass floored structure hangs out over a 280 m drop.
This walkway provides breathtaking views of the spectacular Mt. Athabasca and its vast glacier and the ice carved valley 300 m below. There are many nature related interpretive exhibits along the walkway giving interesting natural history of the region. The suspended ‘skywalk’ section is a very impressive engineering feat and is eco-friendly in its design that uses unpainted steel and glass laminates.
The geomorphology of the Icefields Parkway region is stunning and photographs rather than words give a better description of the layering of sediments, the upheaval and tilting of these vast mountain plateaux and the smoothness of carved glacial valleys.
The road then entered the Sunwapta Pass and then after the Saskatchewan River crossing we left the highway and had a short walk into the Peyto Lake lookout. Down below, filling the valley is a turquoise blue lake several kilometres long. The colour looks unreal and this vivid blueness is a result of suspended colloidal rock particles in the water causing scattering and reflection of blue light.
To finish our travels we left the highway just north of Lake Louise and headed on Highway 1 for about 80 km to Golden where our stay will be at Glenogle Resort and Spa for two nights.
On arrival we settled into our large two bedroom apartment and then Doris, our hostess prepared a hearty evening meal and we tried some of the local dry white wine and it was top class. She suggested some activities we might like to try tomorrow and white-water rafting the Kicking Horse River seems to be the thing you must do when in Golden.
Today has been undoubtedly the best weather day of our trip (24oC and cloudless all day) and the spectacular scenery of the Icefields Parkway is utterly beyond comparison and totally unforgettable. Yes we now understand why people say that it’s “the most beautiful road in the world’.