Showing posts with label Jasper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jasper. Show all posts

9/12/2007

September 5, 2007 – Athabasca Glacier and Banff National Park

We booked a tour this morning on the Ice Explorer to go to the Athabasca Glacier. This glacier is the second largest glacier coming from the Columbia Ice Field.

This is the glacier:
We took a bus to the glacier – here is the road:

The dirt that you see to the left of the bus is called a lateral moraine – dirt left over from the glacier. That moraine is 300’ tall – WOW!
From here we boarded the Ice Explorer vehicle to take us unto the glacier.
Here is the road going onto the glacier:


Here is a picture of us on the glacier with the Ice Explorer vehicle:

The ice we are on is 1000 feet thick!! – Another WOW! (And it was cold up on that mountain!)

Picture of the edge of the Ice Field:


Another glacier:

More pictures from our stop:





This is a picture of Mount Snow Dome. From this point the Ice Field feeds three watersheds that flow into the Atlantic, Pacific, and Artic.

I met a woman from Albany on this tour. One of the things she said to me was: “there are no more words beyond beautiful, incredible, wow, to describe all she is seeing” and I second that. Many, many times on this trip, I am at a loss for words to express what we are seeing and experiencing.

We continued our travels down the Ice Field Parkway thru Banff National Park. Some pictures along the way:






Notice the turquoise blue color of the lakes:







Notice the different colors of foliage – this is fall here. Our tour guide for the Ice Explorer told us that they had 4 inches of snow last week and that winter will be here in about 2 weeks or so.


We are now leaving the Rockies. I just had to take this pictures – it looks like a painting, doesn’t it?? Real time, it did also!

We are staying at the Ghost Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area near Cochrane, Alberta. This is our view from our motorhome.


What an incredible day!!

Miles Traveled: 179
Routes Traveled:
Alberta: AL-93 (Ice Field Parkway); Can I-1 (Trans-Canadian Highway); AL-1A





September 4, 2007 – The Canadian Rockies and Jasper National Park

We are in the Canadian Rockies and oh how beautiful they are!!

We entered Jasper National Park this morning and took our time just viewing the sites. We did spend some time at Athabasca Falls – the falls, the sound – incredible!!!



We did see some Big Horn Sheep along the way – I do not have a good picture because we could not pull over.


And the sites along the way – lots of mountains and glaciers:




Words cannot describe the beauty of this place!!

We are camped down the road from the Ice Fields Center at the Wilcox Creek Campground. Some views from the campground:





Miles Traveled: 118.0
Routes Traveled:
Alberta: AL-40 (Big Horn Highway); AL-16 (Yellowhead Highway); AL-93 (Ice Field Parkway)