June 23, 2009

June 23, 2009

We are heading north from Drumheller, AB. Since the dinosaurs were for me, we opt for a detour and take the scenic route thru the Canadian Rockies. Many years ago I drove this route from Calgary thru Banff up to Jasper for business and I thought it the most beautiful drive I had ever taken at the time. This time the conditions are not as perfect. There are low clouds hiding the mountaintops and we are hit with intermittent rain all day. Despite the setback it is still a beautiful drive. The lakes and streams are full of glacial till giving them an iridescent teal color. The snow-capped mountains lining the route rise precipitously from the valley floor like Wyoming’s Grand Tetons but these go on for some two hundred miles.

Beside the scenery, Banff and Jasper National Parks are also full of wildlife. Alongside the road we see two black bears. Then later we see crossing the road a group of mountain goats, a herd of Big Horn sheep and a moose. All had babies with them.

Past Lake Louise, we switch to the Icefields Parkway. To get some exercise on this long driving day, we stop for short hikes to the very scenic Peyto Lake overlook, and another to Mistaya Canyon, where a river gushes thru a tiny gorge

In Jasper NP I hiked out to the foot of Athabasca Glacier. This 4-mile toe off the Columbia Icefield is easily the most accessible glacier in North America. Since the last time I was here, in 1998, the glacier has receded some two hundred yards. Back then I took a Sno-Coach excursion atop the glacier. After driving and stopping all day we pull into a park campground just south of Jasper.