BACK to index
Heading up to Jasper along the Icefields Highway, we stopped at the Columbia Icefields for an opportunity to get to go onto the Athabasca Glacier. The Columbia Icefield is an area on top of the range of mountains and is a massive Icefield about 120 square miles in size. Between the peaks the ice is squeezed by its own weigh in to "rivers" of ice know as glaciers that flow down the mountain to the valley where they melt into the lakes, streams and rivers.
From the visitor center you can see several glaciers flowing down from the massive icefields on top of the mountain range.
The below image is of the Athabasca Glacier, the one that there is trips out onto it for the public. The glacier is nearly 4 miles long and between 300 and 1000 feet thick. To get an idea of the scale of this the image below has 3 dark rectangles along the left edge of the glaciers the look like rocks but the are 50 foot long monster buses.
Here is the view from out in the middle of this glacier.
Since there is no plant or animal life on the glacier to contaminate it, the melt water is quite pure and drinkable, not to mention ice cold.
Even from the middle of one glacier you can see other glaciers flowing down the nearby mountains.
These are the monster buses we rode on to get to the middle of the glacier. They are large specially built 6 wheel drive buses capable of driving out in the snow and ice.
They had examples of the past history buses they had used to go out onto the glaciers. The blue ones were converted 1950's Greyhound buses that go the nickname Shake & Bake. There is no suspension so they really shake the passengers around and they have a lot of windows they can not be opened thus making them hot and baking the passengers.
As you can tell by now, there are a few standard items I try to get pictures of when I see them. I like to collect images with the face cut outs and Jake with bears, Capri with Moose, and Lori is usually with Buffalo, the Mountie will have to do this time.
This is a telephoto view of the top of the mountain range along the Columbia Icefield. The glacier on top of the whole mountain range shows up all over like this where the ice and snow pack you see on top of the rock is probably 100 feet thick.
After visiting the Athabasca Glacier we continued on to Jasper. Below is the old stone building that is the visitor center there.
While driving in the Jasper area we saw so many animals. Since the sun did not set until 10:30 at night we had time for evening drives in the area. This is when we saw a Grizzly bear a couple of blocks from town, and then 1/2 mile further was a rock outcropping along the road with many mountain goats.
On a day trip from Jasper we drove up the Maligne Valley. The first stop is the Maligne Canyon. This slot canyon which at times is only 6 feet wide and 150 deep, was formed when melting glaciers in the Malign Valley had their water flow go through the narrow section of the valley to where is lets out into the Jasper Valley which is a few hundred feet lower.
This was one of the only elk we saw with a decent rack on its head. We found it along with an elk jam on the road. There was really no place to pull over so Jake hopped out and got a few shots.
BACK to index