East Glacier Revisited, then Lake Louise and The Icefields Parkway

Because Lynda did the East Glacier post I didn't get to put up any of my pictures.
This is my favorite wildlife pic from the park:

The Brown Topped Nikon Shooter, in it's natural habitat.

OK, enough of this foolishness.

We left Glacier National Park and a few miles later, the U.S. We entered Alberta just south of Waterton International Peace Park and because we were the first "customers" of the day we had to wait for the customs agent to turn on the lights, computers, etc. Unfortunately we didn't get to stop at Waterton because we had a long drive to Lake Louise.

Canada at last!

It was still winter in Lake Louise and the lake was frozen and the trails still had some snow on them.

 A view down the lake to the glacier on the cliffs at the far end of the lake. The hotel clears a skating area on the lake creating the berms in the foreground.

A small opening in the ice at the far end of the lake. Click on the image and you may be able to see that the water and ice are blue green in color.

                                                       At the far end of the lake is a cliff face that is a favorite for climbers. There   was a team of two, one climbing, one    belaying, practicing moves on the face.

There's that Nikon Shooter again!     

The view from our campground.

We then headed over to Moraine Lake on the recently opened road. There was still quite a bit of snow at the side of the road. We saw a number of cyclists putting in early season miles on this mountainous road.

As with Lake Louise, Moraine Lake was frozen over but still spectacular. Unfortunately we couldn't see the blue waters under the ice. We could, however, hear an icefall or avalanche crashing down the mountain unseen.

 We tried hiking around the lake (we were told the trail was open at the visitor center) but didn't make it far without our snowshoes.

I found out about "postholing" the hard way!


















We left Lake Louise and made our way up The Icefields Parkway to Jasper. In 2004 Lynda and I did a Rocky Mountain Cycle Tours ride from Jasper to Banff along this same highway. I left that trip with the impression of a fairly benign ride with a few climbs and two mountain passes. After our drive I realized how wrong my memory was! The terrain was rolling with big climbs every few miles. We both marveled at the length and steepness of the passes and the fact that we were able to climb them.

Of course one of the attractions of the parkway is the scenery.

This is one of the Waterfowl Lakes. The color is olive green. 

I always thought this row of mountains was unique. They are like a table with two legs sawed off, absolutely flat but tilted. You can see them for miles.

This is the reason the road is called the Icefields Parkway. These glaciers are across the road from the Icefields Center. In the past some of these glaciers reached all the way to the road, now they're miles away.

Above is Mt Athabasca. A 10,000 foot peak that our cycling trip guides scaled under a full moon as the rest of us slept!


Just a few miles north of the Icefields Center is the new Glacier Skywalk which juts out over a canyon. If you choose to pay $25 per ticket, stand in a line and take a short shuttle ride, you can walk out to get a view through the glass floor to the glacier 918 feet below. Yikes! This wasn't here 10 years ago so when we got to the top of a long climb we stood at a pullout and looked over the guardrail.

We stopped at Athabasca Falls, our first stop on the cycling trip, to see if it had changed. The falls was described by early explorers as "a roaring torrent topped by a perpetual rainbow". The rainbow is still there!

 A few miles further we turned right at Jasper and headed along the beautiful Rt. 16 to Hinton, AB where we ended the day with this gorgeous sunset.

Stay tuned for more in our adventure as we travel to Dawson Creek and up The Alaska Highway. 3500 miles down 1400 to go to Fairbanks!