The 227km road linking Banff to Jasper is known as The Icefields Parkway and is one of the world’s most magnificent drives; and we were about to find out why. There are soooo many places to stop on route that it would have probably taken our entire Canadian trip to explore all of them; mountains, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, wildlife, forests, canyons….. We were doing this route twice (on the way up and back down), which meant that a) we could juggle driving so each of us got to be a passenger and sit goggling at the views, b) we could fit in twice the number of stops.
A lot of the attractions can be viewed directly from the road or via walks of less than 0.5km making this an extremely accessible way of experiencing the National Parks. On the way North we stopped at Bow Lake and Crowfoot Glacier and the Columbia Icefields parkway centre with its view of the Athabasca Glacier.
Whilst the scenery of the roads through the Rockies was glorious, we should point out that Canadians (outside of Quebec) are generally not in a rush, and this most definitely extends to highway management and maintenance. It turns out that a) Canada has not yet cottoned on to temporary traffic lights during roadworks, b) for some reason 4 way crossings (where priority is given to the person who got there first – because that’s always obvious – not) are considered simpler than roundabouts and c) it is considered perfectly reasonable to stop all traffic on a road in Canada (without any diversion) for a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour to allow for the ‘blasting’ of roadside cliffs. In all cases this leads to multiple examples of traffic controllers spending their days waving stop and go signs, wild gesturing and occasional yelling in order to control motorists. (Gareth: Just to point out, neither of us got yelled at!)
After a glorious drive up Icefields Parkway, with only one 30 minute ‘blasting’ break, we started heading an hour north east of Jasper town itself, to a town called Hinton which is just outside of the National Park. We had heard that due to Jasper National Park being much less crowded than Banff the chances of wildlife encounters dramatically increase. So when we got held at another stop and the cars in the opposite direction began to ignore the wild gesturing and yelling of the poor traffic controller, Gareth knew to drive slower for the camera when we were finally allowed to go. We were rewarded with our first bear sighting! A black bear ambling along at the side of the road, with no concerns at all about the tens of drivers goggling. Sadly you will have to wait for the photos, until we can download from the main camera!
After two nights of camping we were both quite relieved to be treating ourselves to a motel (Claire was a little over excited at the prospect of staying in her first motel!), and took the opportunity to do some serious de-stinking and carb load cooking ahead of the running race we had booked for the next day!
We had signed up months ago to complete Hintons ‘Run in the Rockies’, electing for the 10k rather that the half marathon (because we are on holiday!). It was a beautiful sunny September day, and the runners of Hinton were so welcoming to their first Brits to complete the course.
(Gareth: Claire came third lady and beat me, but she’s too modest to mention either of those things!)
With the race done it was time to head back into the National Park and reward ourselves with a soak at the hottest hot springs in the park. Miette Hot Springs were just 40 minutes down the road, so we really couldn’t resist! You see – we are doing some relaxing on this holiday!!
After soaking those muscles and daring ourselves to jump into the plunge pool, we headed back to Jasper town via Maligne Canyon – the deepest canyon in the Rockies at over 50m! Six bridges allow you to traverse the canyon with the river and waterfall roaring below – the pictures really don’t do this justice, it was truly impressive.
On the way to our campsite, just outside of Jasper town, we noticed cars pulled over on the side of the road and headed over to take a look. A herd of Elk with a very vocal male were grazing right alongside of the road. It was rutting season, so we tried to keep our distance.
We were slightly less impressed with the noisy Elk that woke us up during that night camping. For those of you that haven’t heard an Elk before, it sounds a little bit like a slightly crazed child screaming or a really noisy rusty gate. On the plus side we survived another night’s camping without being eaten by bears. We set off bright and early the next day on our way south, back along the Icefields parkway. Our planned stops this time revolved around reliving Gareth’s previous family holiday to the Rockies and included: Anthabasca Falls (we discovered that Gareth might not actually have been here last time), Honeymoon Lake Campground, Sunwapta Falls and a walk to the edge of the Anthabasca Glacier.
At Athabasca Falls we learnt about the delicate balance of the forest ecosystem and how the success of reducing forest fires has meant that trees are growing beyond their natural lifetime and becoming susceptible to Mountain Pine Beetles. That’s why a lot of the trees in our photos look brown. When the trees are younger and growing faster, they secrete a sap that helps fight off the beetles. The national parks plan to manage the situation by encouraging controlled burns during the summer months.
Next up is our travels through British Columbia to reach Vancouver Island. We have the 10 hour flight to Japan to write that one up!
Claire and Gareth go travelling! 