Icefields Parkway

Catching up on blog posts...earlier this month I was in Jasper, Alberta, preparing to cruise the Icefields Parkway through the Canadian Rockies to Banff.  I stayed at Patricia Lake Bungalows, a resort on the pristine lake of the same name.  It's three km or so to Jasper, but out in the wild, with loons calling at dawn and dusk.  Here the Solara is ready for the run.

Sunwapta Falls, on the Athabasca River.  The Athabasca flows strongly all through the summer from the melting of its namesake glacier.  It roars through a gorge here with wild power.

The Athabasca...to me, the name evokes the North.  Rising from the parent glacier, it flows north through Alberta to Lake Athabasca, far north of all the province's cities.  Its waters eventually wind up in Hudson Bay.  Trees on the islands are small because the islands are periodically washed away by floods.

The crow abides.

The massive Stutfield glacier.

Not much climate change debate here in Canada.  They buy into it.  See the next pic for evidence.

Here, I'm walking to the snout of  the Athabasca glacier.  The sign in the foreground marks the position of the snout in 1982.  Now, it's out of sight, over the ridge in the foreground, beyond all the people, about a quarter of a mile distant.  I first visited the glacier in 1972...this place was under ice back then!  

The snout of the glacier.  It originates in the Columbia Icefield, over the ridge in the background.  As I did in 1972, you can still take a sno cat tour on the ice.  But the glacier has shrunk by about half in the last 60-70 years.

An ice cave at the snout.

Glacial runoff.  The edges of a glacier are messy piles of rock...moraines of material carried down from the heights and deposited by the receding ice.

The Lizards do the glaciers!  Not their natural habitat.  They miss the cactus and sagebrush.

Long glacier, not far from Athabasca.

This creek is so full of fine glacial sediment that its waters are virtually opaque...and the color of milk.

Bridal Veil Falls, not far from Athabasca Glacier.

A classic U-shaped glacial valley.  The Icefields Parkway is one of the world's great drives.  The weather was decent the day I was there...had the top down part of the way.  But just a couple weeks later...still in August...snow fell on the peaks.

The Saskatchewan river at Saskatchewan Crossing.  This was a trade route for millennia, first for native peoples and later for European pioneers such as David Thompson, who came through here in the early 19th century and mapped much of North America.

Layers of trees, seeking level ground on the slopes.

The Saskatchewan River, with boreal forest.

Peyto Lake.  NO photoshopping...it really looks like this.

Abstract northern scene at Peyto Lake.

Bow Lake.  Most lakes up in these parts are turquoise.  Will post pics of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake later...equally fine.

Even the Bow River in Banff is bluish green.  This pic was taken from my deck at the Bow View Motel in Banff.  Great location...out the back was the river and a vast expanse of forest.  Out the front...bustling downtown Banff, with Safeway, the Old Spaghetti Factory, an Irish pub, and all the modcons.  Quite a juxtaposition...very cool.