Athabasca

I still find it absolutely fascinating to see snow scattered over mountain tops during summer.  On the Icefield's parkway from Jasper to Banff  you get to see just that in bucketloads - or glacier loads to be exact.

After visiting Jasper we drove along the Icefield's Parkway and visited Mount Edith Cavell.  We had to drop our TT off at the base of the mountain as the road up to Mt Edith Cavell is very narrow with many switchbacks - definately not suitable for towing a trailer. Once there a short hike up a reasonably steep hill brought us to the incredibly beautiful Angel Glacier.  Go to your thesaurus and look for synonyms for beautiful - that's what this Glacier is.  We were even able to walk down to the base of the mountain where a lake of water has formed from snow melt.

Now I don't want to get on my soap box here but being this close to one of nature's masterpieces and watching it melt before our eyes reinforced the importance of our responsibility to the environment and what we can do now so that our  our children's children can also witness  this beautiful spectacle.  (Coming down from soap box now!!)

We stayed in the most amazing campsite at Wilcox Creek campground a few minutes from the Columbia Icefields.  While it didn't have showers and it got mighty chilly in the evening, the campsite did afford us one of the most spectacular views so far in our road trip.  I don't think Bren and I could get tired of looking out over snow capped mountains while camping.

Here are a few snaps from our drive from Jasper to the Athabasca Glacier.

Some elk calves snuggling down for the night.

Mt Edith Cavell

Angel Glacier 

We were here!! 

A glacier near the Columbia Icefileds

Not a bad view!!!

Athabasca Glacier

Notice the scoring in the rocks?  That's caused by the glacier as it moves.

In the past 13 years the glacier has retreated about 20m.  Turn off those lightbulbs and drive your car less people!!!

Some of the hardy native flowers growing at the foot of the Athabasca glacier.  These little guys only have a short growing period but put on a beautiful show.

Indian Paintbrush

Mountain weather changes rapidly.  5 minutes after this was taken as we were packing up the trailer we faced sleet and hail!!