Up and at ’em – breakfast at 7:00, back on the bus by 8:00 and off we go towards Athabasca Glacier. Daniel continues to regale us with stories, bad puns and actual historical as well as geological information about the mountain range itself. We’ve learned about several kinds of mountains – castellated – the rock erodes into a layer-cake look; sawtooth – the ridges of the mountains are shaped by prevailing winds and erosion; horn – what we on the East Coast are most familiar with – single peak ready to climb; and the overthrust – Daniel’s favorite – where the older stone actually erupts over the newer stone and makes one side a steep cliff while the other is a moderate slope – they almost have a razor-sharp edge at the summit. So besides being a very good guide, he makes the long bus rides pretty interesting.
Our first stop is Bow Lake which thanks to the incredible weather we’re having is absolutely beautiful. We stop for some pix and while oohing and aahing at the blueness of the water, we are further treated to the Crowfoot Glacier behind the Lake. Bow Lake is fed by Bow Glacier and is the source of the Bow River which is the river we “floated” down our first day in Calgary. As I posted yesterday, by the time the river reaches Banff, there’s a Falls and it’s moving at a pretty good clip. Check out these photos…
So we leave Bow Lake and travel on down to what can only be described as a Lake beyond description – Peyto Lake is so full of “glacial flour” that the color, especially with today’s weather is unreal. You can see in one of the pictures where the “flour” is entering the Lake. This “flour” is the result of the glacier pounding the bottom-most layer of rock/silt etc. to, literally, a flour which then bleeds into the lake and is responsible for all the colors we see. Peyto was more than a postcard.
We stopped at The Crossing (named for the point at which traders and trappers crossed the Saskatchewan River in the 1800’s) to pick up lunch although we had purchased groceries at the IGA the night before and Rachel made us sandwiches. It was a pretty good idea too considering The Crossing’s prices were crazy even for Canadians! We traveled a little farther up the Icefields Highway to Cameron Creek where we ate lunch at picnic tables and had a chance to get up close to the Northern Saskatchewan River. You’ll see this river is a milky color – also caused by the glacial flour from the Saskatchewan Glacier. It was very fast moving and not particularly pretty but lunch was great. Back on the bus to move on to Jasper National Park and the Athabasca Glacier. On the way we saw a Bridal Veil Falls – very popular name since we have one near us in New York as well.
When we get to the Columbia Icefields which is the entity from which 6 glaciers are formed in the surrounding Rockies – Athabasca is only one – we ride a regular bus for five minutes, across the street basically, to meet up with our Ice Explorer which will actually take us up on the glacier. It is quite the machine – there are only 23 in the world and 21 of them are at the Columbia Icefields Centre. The tires – 6 on each machine – cost a handy $10,000 each. It is not a speedy machine but it gets the job done. We move up the moraine left behind by the retreating glacier but at one point we are driving down a 36 degree incline, the steepest hill in the world we’re told, and eventually arrive at Athabasca. We are only allowed to walk in a certain area for safety but it is enough. It is not as cold as it could be and again, the weather, sun, sky and beauty make it almost perfect.
The glacier itself is not much to look at – it’s actually pretty dirty looking but there is a beauty in the blueness and the magnitude of Mother Nature – we are standing on somewhere between 600 and 900 feet of ice that is moving!
After Athabasca we headed back to Banff – it’s a good long ride and we were “resting” or listening to music or reading most of the way home. Managed dinner at the Canadian Brew House while watching a Yankees game and the rodeo events of the Calgary Stampede. Back to the hotel and a good night’s sleep – tomorrow back up the Trans Canada Highway to Lake Louise and then on to Calgary for our last night in Canada.
Let me just say, “WOW!” Looking at this kind of awesome power and beauty always makes me think of my Dad’s favorite hymn,
“How Great Thou Art.”