Glaciers, lakes and grand views!

  We left Jasper after a very nice breakfast (Salmon Eggs Benedict), heading south toward Lake Louise, we first drove through miles and miles of devastated forest.  Every tree, on every hill, on both sides of the road is gone - for over 20 miles!  It really makes you understand what they say when sometimes the air quality in NY is impacted by “Canadian Wildfires”. This being said, the landscape is still magnificent, with jagged peaks covered with ice surrounding great valleys.  

  After about 20 miles, we reached Athabaskan Falls, and also at last, live trees. The falls are awe inspiring and so is the great work that Parks Canada has done to make them accessible and enjoyable for the many visitors. There are multiple points of view, and you can get really close!

 

 We also stoped at Sunwapta Falls, where the Sunwapta River changes course and drops dramatically into a deep canyon. Again, the trails leading to it and the viewing platforms were impressive.

 Then we went to this stretch of the highway's main attraction: the Columbia Ice Field, where you can see as many as 5 glaciers at a time. We took one of the heavy vehicles that can drive up the hills to go take a walk on the glacier itself.  A very unique experience indeed! The glacier itself looks dirty, because of  all the debris that settles on it, but the water that flows out of it is crystal clear (I took a sip, it was refreshing!).

  

  Then we went to the “skywalk”, a glass floor observation platform that extends over the Sunwapta Valley. 

 

 It’s cool, a bit scary (but they had a lot of signs explaining how safe it is…) and gives a great view of the valley. 

 Driving along the valley, we saw many Big Horn Sheep. The sheep look rather raggedy because they are losing their winter coats.

We also saw a large black bear, but did not notice in time to slow down and take pictures….. 

  There are many glacier visible along the route south - below is an example of the cap on the mountain- it’s hard to tell from the picture, but it is over 50 feet deep. There are people who really enjoy this snow even more than we do…  At one spot, we saw people walking up the mountain, just to ski down it - you can see the ski tracks all down the slope, and the little spot on the left is a guy walking up it!

 The road is really beautiful and awesome the entire way, and I could post 100 pictures, and we could have stopped at every view point and taken a hundred more…..  but it would not do it justice, so here are just two.  

  

Continuing toward Lake Louise, we stopped at Peyto Lake, known for its distinctive turquoise color, and its wolf head shape. It is stunning - and the walk to it, through a snow covered forest, is very pleasant.  It was however on the very edge of being unpleasantly crowded. It is not yet peak season - it must be just crazy in July!

 Finally, we made it to Lake Louise, which is as pretty as they say.  It is crowded too, but it doesn’t matter, because we are splurging and staying at the “Chateau Lake Louise” (see top picture), the only hotel on the lake itself. It is magnificent!

   I took a stroll along the lake, capturing some of the sights, and meeting this adorable western chipmunk, before “cocktails with a view” and a nice fondue at one of the hotel’s restaurants. We are only staying one night, which is too bad because it is a really special place. On the other hand, as mentioned above, it is a splurge…

The motto of Alberta is “ land of the wild rose”, so here is one.  

    

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