Icefields Parkway

I read somewhere that the drive between Jasper and Banff National Parks on Icefields Parkway was one of the "top ten most beautiful drives in the world," or something like that. So I was really looking forward to it, and Sam has never met a geological feature he wasn't fascinated with, so I knew he would like it too. The children are pretty good at keeping themselves amused with sticker books and games and so forth, so it was just Ziggy I was worried about. And thankfully, he stayed mostly happy and content! It was a long day in the car (in an ideal world, we would not have come all the way from Edmonton and then from Jasper to Banff in a day, but instead camped in Jasper or something so we could take our time and stop at every overlook!)—but we were still SO glad we took this route. It really was one of the most beautiful places we have EVER been. Every turn brought some new panorama that seemed like the most perfect mountain scene an artist could dream up.

Every time there was a sunny spot by the road, we would see huge washes of wildflowers—often daisies, which was surprising because the daisies here in Utah are gone by mid-June. I guess the higher elevation lets them bloom later. They were so pretty! And so abundant! I finally decided I ought to stop trying to photograph them from the car, because they mostly just looked like white indistinguishable blurs in the grass, but we did stop in one place so Daisy could join her compatriots for a picture.

We stopped to eat our picnic lunch at a lovely little spot by a stream. There was so much fighting between the children as lunch began that Sam and I moved to a different table nearby, which we designated the "non-fighting table." Naturally, the children migrated one by one over to this second table and then continued their fighting there, but we banished the worst offenders back to the first table and enjoyed a relatively peaceful lunch. :)

Here is Ziggy enjoying a moment of solitude on his little toilet. This toilet was a lifesaver, as Zig is newly toilet-trained and bathrooms are scarce on this road! It was a relief not to have to worry about if he'd be able to wait long enough between stops.

The view from our picnic table was amazing!

Oh, these mountains. They seemed SO HIGH and SO STEEP. I had actually worried a little, before our trip, that since we have such great mountains in Utah, the Canadian Rockies wouldn't seem that special to us. But these were more impressive than any mountains we've ever seen! When we got home and looked up their heights, we were so surprised to find that these mountains really aren't that much higher than ours in Utah. Our Timpanogos is nearly as tall as several mountains in Jasper and Banff. But it feels much smaller, and I'm not exactly sure why. Sam said it might be because of the lack of foothills by these Canadian Rockies, meaning you can take in their full, uninterrupted height—whereas in Utah we can't get very close to our mountains without already being rather high up in the foothills. It might also be the steep drops and cliff faces that make these mountains seem so towering and precarious, rather than gently sloped as some of ours are. Or maybe it was just because the surroundings were different with more trees and more snow. But we felt like we were experiencing mountains as we had never experienced them before!

We made a quick stop to see Athabasca Falls, which was beautiful and powerful. I love waterfalls! However—I must admit—having just seen the dramatic plunging narrow falls of Maligne Canyon, I was a tiny bit less impressed by Athabasca Falls than I might otherwise have been. Still, it was a beautiful view and well worth the stop.

Water swirling around a rock and carving out caves—I love that.

So many of these pictures had to be out of the car window, it is a little sad. I wish we'd had time to stop at every stop, and take in every view—and maybe Sam and I will come back alone someday and do just that. As it was we were already going to get to our rental house late that night, and we didn't dare stretch out this drive TOO long—but at the same time we could hardly bear the thought of missing any of this amazing scenery. The children liked it, and murmured polite agreement as Sam and I (and Sebastian! He was the only one who was just as enthusiastic as we were!) exclaimed over each new vista—but they weren't quite equally enthralled. So we stopped a bit more often than the majority of the group wanted us to. But not as much as WE wanted to. Hopefully it was a good balance. :)

This mountain was so slanted!

At one point along the road, we saw lots of cars stopped, and then looked over to see a black bear right by the road! It was so exciting because we've always wanted to see a REAL BEAR in the wild. (We never did at Yellowstone—except at Bear World, of course.) Abe, especially, loves bears, so we were all so happy that he got to see this one!

As the road climbed higher we started to get a better look at some of the glaciers on the mountains.

It had been a beautiful sunny day to this point (contrary to the forecast of rain all week, which I was so grateful for—it would have been so sad to miss these beautiful peaks because they were hidden in rain!) but there were clouds constantly moving over the mountains, and eventually we got high enough to travel through some of them. It was beautiful—maybe even more beautiful than just plain blue skies, because of the way the light and shadow kept changing.

There was misty rain, and then even some misty snow, interspersed with sunlight. (And look at that long glacier blanket on top of this mountain!)

Dramatic U-shaped valley!

This long snow-road is the Athabasca Glacier, which is quite accessible, and people can even go up and walk on it, I think—though we didn't. They call the end of it the "toe" of the glacier, which pleases me. I would like to touch a glacier's toe!

I didn't know I would like glaciers so much! I thought they were just…I don't know…big piles of snow. But they were so fascinating. The blue icy edges and the way the light catches on the deeper parts. The funny way they sit on top of mountain ledges, like hats or blankets. Sam and I could not stop exclaiming over how cool they were! It made me wish to explore one someday—to see the melt channels and ice caves and crevasses in them (like this, for goodness sake! Or this!). (Although I don't really like being cold, so maybe that's not for me.) But anyway, seeing them even from a distance was awesome! Sam and I seriously considered making the 6-hour round trip from our rental house, just to come up and look at this glacier again, though we didn't end up doing so.

After awhile we started driving down out of the clouds again.

Ziggy was still in good spirits, thankfully!

More glaciers. Look at those ice-blue cross-sections!

This glacier is so flat and floppy. Like a thick slab of bacon laid across the mountainside. 

There were several horn-mountains! You know, like the Matterhorn. I love that shape.

It's hard to tell at this resolution, but the ice on those sliced-off sides of the glaciers wasn't just flat—it had depth and texture to it. It almost looked lacy, or—maybe more accurately—multi-layered, like banded sandstone or gneiss.

Most of the lakes in these parks are fed by glaciers, so they have that beautiful turquoise color. Something about the glacial till (bits of dirt and minerals carried in the melting glacier water)—though Sam kept going on about how the color really wasn't because of the till as such, but because of the associated subsurface scattering—or Tyndall scattering—or is Rayleigh scattering? We shall never know, unless he leaves a comment enlightening us. At any rate, it was BEAUTIFUL.

A tall waterfall! Coming from a glacier! What could be more beautiful?

Maybe adding in some fireweed as well?

And then a turquoise lake to finish it off?

This was such an amazing drive, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know there are so many things we missed, and it would be also be fun to go back in the opposite direction and see what was different from that perspective! But, who knows if we will get the chance for that. I hope we will someday, but even if not, we will treasure our memories of this part of God's beautiful world!