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Old 21 Aug 18, 01:15 PM  
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Vancouver and the Rockies July/August 2018 - Day 9 - Icefields, waterfalls and more bear spotting

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Day 9 - Tuesday 31st July 2018 - Columbia Icefields, Skywalk, Sunwapta Falls, another bear sighting, Athabasca Falls and Horseshoe Lake

The alarm went off at 7:30 am and I’d had a message from Katie asking me to ring her. We chatted for about half an hour, then I quickly got ready for the day ahead.

We nipped to the supermarket next door and picked up some breakfast items and a baguette for lunch. Martin had blueberry yoghurt and granola and I had a lovely fruit salad containing oranges, cherries, strawberries, blueberries and grapes.







We left the room slightly later than planned at 9:25 am and began our trip down the Icefields parkway. A little way on our journey, we had a panic about not filling up the car with petrol. I frantically began googling for the nearest gas station. It appears there isn’t one between Jasper and the Glacier tour. We checked the mileage we had left and panicked a little. We might just make it back if the mileage was accurate. Then again, we might not!

Before I lost my phone signal, I’d found that there was a gas station about 30 miles further south from the glacier centre, so think we’ll be going there. It was definitely a lesson learnt!







We parked up at the Icefield Centre about 40 minutes before our tour time. We wandered around the building for a bit, plus the outdoor areas to take some photos. At about 11:15 am, we entered the tour line and soon boarded the bus.





We left the centre at 11:30 am exactly, with James from Northampton as our bus driver. It took about 7 minutes to reach the midway place where we boarded the ice explorer vehicle.



Kevin was our driver and guide. He was very informative about the glaciers and we also discovered that the vehicle we were in only travels at about 12mph and each one costs 1.2 million. Not sure if that’s Canadian dollars, US dollars or pounds though.

We arrived on the glacier at 11:55 am and were up there for about 25 minutes. You definitely need a jumper or hoodie, as although it was warm on the bus, the wind was quite bitter, despite it being a warm and sunny day. I was surprised to find that it wasn’t particularly slippery under foot. I loved our time up there.





We were encouraged to fill our water bottle with fresh water. My fingers were numb for a good 10 minutes afterwards! It was lovely and refreshing to drink though.









We learnt a few more facts on our return journey. The temperature varies between -50 degrees in the winter to 30 degrees in the summer. I can't imagine how cold that feels.

The Columbia Icefield contains a mountain called Snow Dome, which has a triple continental divide. Waters from here flow into three separate oceans - it flows north into the Arctic Ocean, east into the Atlantic Ocean and west into the Pacific Ocean.

The bus automatically took us to the Skywalk next. There is a little bit of a walk up to it, with free audio guides to use along the way. However I found the whole experience a bit stressful. People had no consideration for others at all and would just block whole pathways while they were trying to get the perfect photo or selfie. There were several really large parties, which seemed to make it worse as you just couldn’t get past them.



I surprised myself and went on the actual skywalk, although admit to muttering a few times ‘don’t look down.’ Martin was guiding me around the people who were sprawled over the whole width of it taking their various photos!



He let go of me at one point, and I did get a bit panicky because I could feel the skywalk moving. However, he soon must have noticed my face as he came back for me and we walked the short distance off it and back to the main path.

We got a bus back to the centre and were back in our car for 2 pm where we ate our lunch. The temperature had increased somewhat. It showed 12 degrees this morning and was now 29.



We started on our detour south to find petrol. The petrol gauge was showing 114 km left with a distance of 102 km to go to get back to Jasper. That was far too close for comfort and just not worth the risk. We soon found Saskatchewan River Crossing and the only gas station in the area. We put $50 in the tank and breathed a sigh of relief. Petrol was quite a bit more expensive at this station, which is only to be expected - it has a bit of a monopoly really. But it probably cost us an extra £6, which is a small price to pay to be able to relax for the journey home.

We turned back on the road towards Jasper and listened to the GyPSy app for the guide to the Icefields Parkway, which pointed out several places of interest to stop, along with a bit of history.





We passed the Weeping Wall. If it wasn’t for the app we’d have definitely missed it, as there wasn’t a huge amount of water coming down - you can just see a few trickles in the left hand third of the photo below.



Very close by, there was a lookout for Cirrus Mountain, where there was also a Bridalveil Falls. It is apparently a very common name for waterfalls. We visited one with the same name last year in Yosemite. I can't seem to find the photos we took here though.

We passed the Icefields Centre again, having completed our detour, then soon came upon Tangle Falls, where we made a brief stop. This is a beautiful, multi-level waterfall right next to the road. Some people were climbing up towards the top, but we just took a few photos and resumed our journey.



Our first proper stop on the return journey was scheduled to be Sunwapta Falls. The top of the falls are just a short walk from the car park and you can follow the trail to the lower falls - we didn’t though. It was 4:30 pm already and we had 3 more stops to make on our itinerary for the day. I think we’d been a little too ambitious with our plans!





About a kilometre after leaving Sunwapta Falls, we noticed a few cars stopped at the side of the road and people had their cameras out. We pulled in too, and then noticed another black bear in the woods on the opposite side of the road. It was having a lovely time moving through the undergrowth, pulling things off bushes and trees there - we heard that berries are a favourite food for bears and they’re often growing near the roadside. We hung around for about 10 minutes, trying to capture a good photo from a safe distance, before we resumed our journey back towards Jasper.







Our next stop was Athabasca Falls. It started to rain as we got out of the car, but soon stopped. We only spent about 20 minutes here. We walked round to the other side of the falls, but again didn’t go to the bottom of them. These falls aren’t particularly spectacular in terms of the height of them, but they are spectacular in terms of the power of the water.







We made a stop at Horseshoe Lake, another place we probably wouldn’t have found without the app, as it’s not particularly well signposted. By now it was early evening and was very quiet, but it could be a very nice stop on a hot day. There were some people still swimming in there, but we didn’t walk very far around it as we were felt we were being bitten alive by mosquitoes, so we turned round and returned to the car. Having seen Gunna’s stunning photos of it though, I wish we’d returned to the car for our insect repellent and then persevered with our walk around the lake!



We were flagging a bit now. It was 6:15 pm and we’d still planned to walk the glacier trail at Cavell Meadows. We ended up deciding to ditch it and to try and fit it in tomorrow instead. However, perhaps it’s a good job we did, as when we later searched exactly where it was to try and fit it in tomorrow, it appears the road leading to it is closed, due to construction of a new day use area and parking lot.

We drove back into Jasper, passing this chap grazing at the side of the road.



We felt too tired to go back out tonight - if I'd have gone back to the room to get showered and changed, I'm sure I'd have ended up asleep within half an hour, so we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant tonight. Gunna had recommended it to us and he wasn’t wrong. They do really great burgers. We both ‘built our own’ so we could customise them exactly how we wanted. Martin had a couple of local IPA beers and I just had a Diet Coke. The bill came to $65 inclusive of tip.







We were back in the room by about 8pm feeling absolutely shattered! We knew we’d got a busy two days in Jasper trying to fit everything in, especially as we’d spent a good portion of it on the Icefield Parkway. However, we had planned it that way so it would reduce the number of stops on our travelling day to Banff on Thursday.

Edited at 01:16 PM.
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Old 21 Aug 18, 07:15 PM  
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Gunna
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Looks like a great day, you certainly packed a lot in.

I was surprised how cold the glacier was, your weather was much better than ours too and it still looks to be cold when it’s sunny!

More good wildlife spots, Jasper seemed to have more spots for us although I know a lot is right place right time.

Really glad you liked the burgers too.👍
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Old 21 Aug 18, 08:00 PM  
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I'm so enjoying your trip as it is bringing back lovely memories of ours 10 years ago. I want to return now although my mobility isn't as good so walking a long way would be out of the question now.
Those vehicles that go onto the glacier are pretty impressive aren't they.
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Old 21 Aug 18, 08:31 PM  
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I have never been to Jasper (have only done Winter in Banff/Lake Louise). It looks lovely - the glacier is very impressive!

And how lucky to see another bear!
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Old 21 Aug 18, 08:35 PM  
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The scenery in your photos is so beautiful.
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Old 22 Aug 18, 04:43 AM  
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Great day although the petrol is scary even in the UK Looking forward to our trip to the Glacier tomorrow
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Old 22 Aug 18, 09:02 AM  
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Originally Posted by Gunna View Post
Looks like a great day, you certainly packed a lot in.

I was surprised how cold the glacier was, your weather was much better than ours too and it still looks to be cold when it’s sunny!

More good wildlife spots, Jasper seemed to have more spots for us although I know a lot is right place right time.

Really glad you liked the burgers too.👍
I think we were lucky with the weather at the glacier. They talked about having to stop the tours the day before due to a thunderstorm, which caused a lot of ongoing chaos.

Jasper was definitely the main place for wildlife spotting for us, with the exception of long horned sheep, as we only saw those while we were in Banff.

Originally Posted by MarionG View Post
I'm so enjoying your trip as it is bringing back lovely memories of ours 10 years ago. I want to return now although my mobility isn't as good so walking a long way would be out of the question now.
Those vehicles that go onto the glacier are pretty impressive aren't they.
Glad you’re enjoying it Marion.

We did actually talk while we were there about how it would be a struggle in a lot of places if you had any mobility problems - even though we only really did relatively flat trails, there were lots of tree roots that would make like very difficult.

Originally Posted by Melbatb View Post
I have never been to Jasper (have only done Winter in Banff/Lake Louise). It looks lovely - the glacier is very impressive!

And how lucky to see another bear!
Hi Mel. Jasper was lovely, but we just needed more time there.

Originally Posted by eleele View Post
The scenery in your photos is so beautiful.
Thank you. I can’t really take the credit for the scenery. It’s definitely a place that everybody should see for themselves.

Originally Posted by parisdisneyfan View Post
Great day although the petrol is scary even in the UK Looking forward to our trip to the Glacier tomorrow
Oh that petrol situation. I think we take for granted that it’s readily available in most places. When we were travelling to and from Kamloops, there were signs warning you that there it was the last petrol station for 100 km for example. As we hadn’t seen anything like that in the Jasper area, we just didn’t think about it. We soon learnt to always have a full tank before we set off!

Enjoy the glacier tomorrow and take layers to add on at the top - the vehicles were warm, so I’d have overheated if I’d had all my layers on for the whole day.
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Old 25 Aug 18, 09:46 AM  
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Fabulous day, so many highlights. Ice fields look awesome, love that bear and those falls look stunning. I’ve been showing the pics to Andy, it’s all so gorgeous. What a great place.
Lol at the petrol situation. We had that on our drive back to Fort Lauderdale, ahem...
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Old 31 Aug 18, 09:16 AM  
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Eek, that skywalk looks terrifying. Great views, but I agree with you don't look down!
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