RELATIVES, RITES and ROUTES Day 16 September 24, 2009 Columbia Icefields to Lake Louise, Alberta

We woke to another glorious day, the sun was shining and it was going to be a warm one. There was a bit of wind but I think they always have a wind here coming off the icefields.

As we were still undecided as to whether we wanted to take the large bus-like machines they use or just hike up to the glacier itself. It didn’t look like they were going very far onto the ice and they were just going onto the Athabasca Glacier. We would have been definitely interested if they were going onto the Columbia Icefield.

So we hiked up to the glacier.

It was quite a climb and certainly got the old heart pumping first thing in the morning. We climbed about 200 feet and the round trip was about 2 miles. We took a bunch of pictures.

While we were taking the pictures we realized that we couldn’t see a lot of the glacier. We then decided to take the snow machine out onto the ice. It is about an 80 minute round trip, 30 minutes out, 20 minutes on the ice and 30 minutes back in. The trip was narrated and quite interesting. After all the indecision I am glad we went.

These two machines were used from the 50’s to the 90’s before they got the big red machines. They called the yellow one “Shake and Bake” because that is just what you did.

When you are at the glacier you can also see other mountains and glaciers.

Mount Andromeda on the right, Mount Athabasca on the left. The far right glacier is Andromeda Glacier with Double A Glacier on the left.

Snow Dome and Snow Dome Glacier.

After leaving the glacier we made a quick lunch and headed down the highway as we wanted to get to Lake Louise today. It was not 2:00 PM and we had to go 130 Kilometers and we only had about 5 hours of daylight left.

The biggest time consumer was the picture taking and we did take a few today. The scenery again was spectacular as we left Jasper National Park and entered into Banff National Park.

There was a controlled forest fire burning at the turnoff to Rocky Mountain House so we had to do a detour to get a closer look.

We also ran across a herd of Big Horn Sheep, well the ewes and kids. The males do not hang with the women and children once they have done their job. We stopped and took a few pictures.

Our first planned stop was the Mistaya Canyon. It is about ½ mile off the road and again it was a fairly steep climb. This time we walked down hill on the way in which made for a hearty climb on the way out. However it was worth it as the canyon and falls were quite unique. The river ran through a canyon that had been carved out over the last 10,000 years and it was amazing to see how narrow and deep the canyon was. It also twisted and turned like a corkscrew.

Thirty two kilometers down the road we came to the turn out for Bow Pass and Peyto Lake. They said it was only a short uphill walk to the viewing platform however I learned that in Banff National Park a short walk was ½ mile and quite steep. Again it was worth it. I had just managed to catch my breath from the climb when we came around a turn and there was the lake in all it splendor. It took what breath I had left.
It is without doubt one of the nicest vistas I have every seen. Kathy gave it 5 Wowies.

The camera did not pick up the turquoise except when facing south due to the time of day and the shadows. It is quite spectacular with the glacier feeding the lakes giving them their turquoise color and the mountains as they come together to form Bow Pass. We stayed for quite awhile just enjoying the view. Finally we had to leave. The only good thing about leaving was that the return trip was downhill.

We had one more stop and that was Crowfoot Glacier. It can be seen from the road and we stopped and took pictures. At one time there were three toes of ice but on toe has been lost. It may not be long before another toe is gone.

We didn’t stop ( except for pictures ) as the viewing was sensational all the way into Lake Louise.

Crowfoot Mountain

Bow Glacier and Bow Glacier Falls

We arrived at the campsite around 7:30PM and checked for two nights. It took us 5 ½ hours to go 130 kilometers or about 80 miles. Blame it on the scenery.

Today was a truly exceptional day.