Again we are impressed by Canada, but this time by the spectacular Rocky Mountains, and the two huge parks dedicated to preserving the wilderness. We got to Banff National Park in the morning after a short drive from Calgary. We weren't too far outside of Calgary when we began seeing the mountains in the distance. The Trans-Canada 4-lane highway goes right through the center of the park, which seems a little unusual, but they have built special fenced overpasses for the animals to cross over the road to help the animals maintain their territories.
Before we even got to Banff we saw a sign for Lake Minnewanka and drove up to see that and Two Jack Lake, hoping to see some wildlife along the way, but no luck, so we drove into downtown Banff, elevation 4,537 feet, a small well-kept town in the mountains that reminded us of towns in the Alps. Actually this town and Lake Louise, elevation 5,052 feet, population maybe 100, are the only towns within the park's boundaries. They are tourist meccas all year long however, as both have large ski areas in the mountains.
After picking up some information in town, we decided to drive on a road called the Bow Valley Parkway, which sounds like some big road, but is actually a very quiet road with a slow speed limit along the valley leading to several hiking spots, and eventually ending up in Lake Louise. It is known as a place to see wildlife, so of course that would appeal to Bob, the hunter. We tried a hike up to Johnston Canyon which is near the parkway to see some waterfalls, but it was so congested (we learned that a million people a year hike up there), that we decided to just drive farther up the parkway in hopes of seeing some animals, and because it was beginning to be rainy and cold. We didn't see any animals that day, but after checking into our campground, we went back to another road near the town to a place called Vermillion Lakes to go wildlife spotting. It looked like prime moose territory, but we discovered that there are very few moose left in the park and none live around those lakes. We did see a couple of elks, though, so ended our day on a high note.
The next morning was cool and rainy, but we decided to go to Lake Louise, again via the parkway, and hoped that the weather would clear up (it didn't). We did spot several bull elks along the way with some pretty impressive “racks,” but no other animals. We got to the lake in Lake Louise, also called Lake Louise. It was absolutely gorgeous, its greenish turquoise color caused by light reflecting off tiny particles of rock flour (glacial silt) carried down from Victoria Glacier which is at the far end of the lake. Since it was raining, the color wasn't as vibrant as it is on a sunny day, but it was beautiful just the same. The lake is fairly small by Finger Lakes standards – just 1 ½ miles long and 295 feet deep. On the near end is the huge Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and a young couple were having their wedding there under a flower trellis. We walked along the lakeshore watching a brilliant red canoe glide along the lake, complimenting its greenish tint.
We thought that nothing could compare with Lake Louise until we drove around the mountain a little way and got to Moraine Lake. It is more bluish turquoise than Lake Louise, and in our opinion, much more beautiful! It is also fed by water coming off the glaciers, but the glacial water feeding it does not carry so much silt, so the water is bluer. The lake is in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, and five of the Wenkchemna Peaks, all over 10,000 feet high, offer a backdrop to the lake. The mountains were named in 1894 by explorer Samuel Allen using the numbers one to ten in the Stoney Nakoda language (Wenkchemna means ten), but all but two of the mountains have been renamed. At the end of the lake near the inn is a huge pile of boulders which were deposited there by a long-disappeared glacier. By climbing the equivalent of six or eight flights of stairs, puff puff, we got to the top for an amazing view of the lake. Despite the rain, this was the highlight of our day. I'm proud of myself for doing all of this hiking, especially in elevations of a mile or more high!
On the way back to our campground in Banff, we again drove down Bow Valley Parkway, and this time were able to see about twelve big-horned sheep near the road licking the ground to get some kind of mineral. It was really amazing to see so many large rams so close to the road. They were eating a bush and digging up the dirt to eat it. We couldn't figure out whether someone had spilled something there or what. The rams were entertaining as they head-butted each other to gain better access to their gourmet meal!
We stopped in the town of Banff to end a perfect day with a great meal in a place called the The Grizzly Steak and Fondue House. We had delicious cheese fondue to start the meal, followed by beef, buffalo, chicken, elk, and venison fondue, and ending with chocolate fondue for dessert! Yum! Yum!
The next morning, Wednesday, the 14th, we finally had sunshine and blue skies. We left Banff and again drove up the parkway toward Lake Louise. This time we were rewarded with lots of wildlife to see. We first saw a black bear, with a big bull elk across the road from it – two for one! Then we saw a bighorn sheep and a mule deer. When we got to the Lake Louise area we went to the ski area where we took a chair lift up the mountain and were rewarded with gorgeous views. We had hoped to see a grizzly bear there as we rode up the lift, since a lot of bears live in that area, but sadly did not get a glimpse. We really want to see one, just not up close!
It was hard to leave the stunning beauty of the mountain top, but we had more to see, so we went down the mountain and started driving up the Icefield Parkway 143 miles to Jasper National Park. We are not really sure why Jasper is a separate park from Banff since they adjoin each other, but they are separate parks. The Icefield Parkway is a magnificent, spectacular drive through remote, high elevation terrain, and scenery that takes your breath away. There are rushing glacial rivers, high alpine glaciers, mountain passes, and brilliant bluish-green lakes all along the way. It seems like every time you turn a corner there is something even more beautiful to see. We went from low valleys to above the treeline, and it was easy to see how harsh the weather could be. Today was warm and sunny, but yesterday it was snowing hard on the parkway!
The road was originally built in 1931 when the government of Canada put hundreds of unemployed men to work building the “wonder trail” through the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The men were paid twenty cents a day to use picks, shovels, and horses to hack a single lane gravel track from Lake Louise to Jasper.
We passed through seven different icefields, the Columbia Icefield alone consisting of 30 glaciers, so you can bet we saw a lot of glaciers along the way. The Columbia Icefield is the largest body of ice in the Rocky Mountains at 130 square miles. It is strange in that it drains in three different directions to the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Arctic Oceans. There are 100 visible glaciers on this road. One of the first glaciers we saw was the Crowfoot Glacier, which looks like a giant crows foot. There were many lakes, too, the prettiest of which was the group of lakes called Waterfowl Lakes, beautiful glacial blues.
We were treated to the sighting of another black bear right along the side of the road; that is we and about a hundred other travelers who all stopped to take pictures of the bear, who paid no attention to us as he went about eating his lunch of greens. We could see why it would be easy to all of a sudden come upon a bear in the woods without it knowing you were there because it was so busy eating.
About half-way up the parkway we came to the Icefield Centre, situated right across from the Athabasca Glacier, the closest glacier to the parkway. Athabasca is about 2.5 square miles in size. While there we took the trip of a lifetime, a tour and walk on the glacier via a special snowcoach. A regular bus took us across the road, and up the moraine from the glacier to another point where we transferred to the snowcoach, a specially made transport that goes over the glaciers at the top speed of 12 miles an hour! Once on the snowcoach we slowly made our way down the steep moraine to the glacier, which at first glance looked like we were still on the moraine because at this point the glacier is covered with about 3 feet of rocks deposited there as the glacier slowly slides down the hill. If we looked carefully, we could see the glacial ice under the rocks in a few places. In the 1800s the glacier extended all the way to where the Centre is now. It has receded a couple of miles back since then. It is now 4 miles long and ½ mile wide. Just down from the head of the glacier at the top of the mountain are some ice falls, which look like steps. We got within about a mile of the head of the glacier, but could go no further because of huge crevasses that would have swallowed our snowcoach. We were able to get out of the coach at that time and stand on the glacier at about 7,000 foot elevation. The glacier is 1,000 feet thick where we were standing, but ranges from 270 feet to 1,000 feet thick. It is slowly moving, like a river, but we can't feel it. The water melt we saw came from snow that fell 150 years ago. Above us were two other glaciers, the AA Glacier, a hanging glacier, and the Andromeda Glacier, a cirque (circle) glacier. Even though it was a sunny day, it was windy up on the glacier, and although the temperature was about 50 degrees F, with the windchill, it was about 40 degrees. The wind is caused by the catabatic winds created by the cooling of the air by the icefield. The glacial ice was slushy from all the coaches driving on it and people walking on it, and was quite slippery. The coaches have a “roadway” over the ice they travel on that is plowed a couple of times a day so it won't be so bumpy the coaches can't go on it. The roadway is changed every three years or so, because it wears down the glacier where it goes. The old roadway is covered over with the snow from the new roadway to make it look uniform again.
The coaches run about 6 months out of the year, from April to October, and most of the people who work at the Icefield Centre live on the grounds because it is an hour from Jasper and two hours from Banff with nothing but National Park in between. The road from Banff to Jasper is kept open all year, with crews plowing all day if necessary, but not at night. About 30 feet of snow fall here every year. That is not appreciatively more than other areas, but the difference is that it is so cold here the snow does not melt. It just piles up on itself, and the weight of it creates the ice of the glaciers.
The trees here, Engleman Spruce and Sub-Alpine Fir, are quite thin, and not very tall even though the ones near the glacier are 300 years old. They were probably no more than eight or ten feet tall. This is because the growing season is only about a month long, and the wind blows so strong from the glacier that branches only grow on one side of the trees.
Now, the same day, I sit here by our crackling campfire in the Wabasso Campground next to the Athabasca River a few miles from Jasper. It is almost ten o'clock at night, and the sun is still shining in the brilliant blue sky! What an experience!
Thursday, July 15, started out cold and overcast. We wanted to see some more wildlife, so we took a 30 mile drive on a back road to another pretty lake. Along the way we came across several bull elks, a bear, and some mule deer. When we got to the lake we decided to walk a trail to another lake in hopes of sighting a moose. It was about 45 degrees out, so we dressed in many layers and set out on the hike through SNOW! There was snow left on the ground from the storm 2 days ago. It was really weird walking through the white stuff on July 15 and we didn't even see a moose! These lakes are higher up the mountain ranges than the lakes closer to Jasper where there is no snow on the ground so we drove back into town. By the time we got there, it was sunny and about 70 degrees out!
We took another hike in the afternoon in short sleeved shirts, wishing we had put on our shorts because we got so hot! What a change! The afternoon hike was pretty strenuous, but we got to see a chain of lakes – The Valley of the Five Lakes, appropriately call First Lake, Second Lake, Third Lake, Fourth Lake, and Fifth Lake! Later we drove to two other lakes that we hadn't seen, Patricia and Pyramid, and ended up having a “cocktail hour” at one of them to celebrate our last night here. We have seen so many beautiful lakes with mountains in the background that as Bob says “you don't even really look anymore”, so I guess it's time to head somewhere new. Seattle, here we come!
Spent all day on the 16th driving out of the mountains to Seattle. At one point we were literally going down a steep incline, some of it an 8% grade, for twenty minutes straight. Arrived to enjoy dinner with niece Kelly, her husband Steve, and 7 week old daughter Kaetlyn.