The Most Beautiful Road in North America and one of the most Awesome Sites!

We started our journey to Jasper by driving on the Trans Canada Highway #1 west from Lake Louise onto the Icefields Parkway, Canada Route 93 which goes for over 230 Km (142 miles) through some of the most beautiful mountain scenery we have ever seen. We stopped at Bow Lake and the Num-Ti- Jah Lodge that was really quite beautiful and afforded us some terrific photo opportunities. We proceeded up the Parkway passing the intersection with the Saskatchewan Crossing (Canada Route 11) and up towards the Columbia Icefields a series of six or more glaciers surrounding an icefield that comprises the Athabasca Glacier, the largest formation of ice south of Alaska. The icefield is huge, over 233 square miles! The glacier is about 5 Km long and over 1000 feet thick—what is frightening is that in the last 100 years about 1.5 Km has disappeared and the projections are that it may disappear completely in less than 100 more (primarily due to global warming). The trip up the Icefields begins in a large lodge by the side of the road. Large tour buses drive us about 8 minutes to the edge of the Athabasca Glacier and then we are placed on these absolutely enormous specially designed ice tractor-buses (unique in the world with 22 of 23 being in service here). These ice buses move slowly (about 10 MPH) down a very sharp incline onto the glacier itself-once on the glacier we are able to appreciate the enormity of it and also the stark beauty, including crystal blue glacier water draining down the side of the ice path we are on. We are able to spend about 25 minutes at the crest of the glacier to take pictures, etc. and then re board the ice bus to return up the hill to the shuttle bus back. One amazing fact is that this glacier is a tricontinental divide with water from here flowing to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. This was one of the highlights of this trip (and most others we have taken).