OH MY GOD !

DAY 6

(part 2)

     It was time to take our leave and meander up to The Athabasca Glacier and the Columbia Ice Field.  The Ice Field Parkway continues to astound us with the beauty and the drama of the snow covered mountains.  We see quite a few glaciers and snow fields but are unable to find names for them.   Until we see one on the west side of the road from afar.  As we close in to the glacier, we find that the actual glacier is really close to the road.

     The glacier is known as Crowfoot, but we do not know the reason for the name.  We learn later that the Glacier is maybe 300-500 feet in depth.   There is a turnout in the road that offers us a spectacular view of Crowfoot so we pull over and have lunch. We are about ½ mile from the face of the Glacier. One of the top 5 picnic spots we have ever had.  Just relaxed and enjoyed the view.

Bird that joined us at crowfoot glacier

   Taking to the road again, we continue to be amazed at the scenery.  It truly is one of those things where you go around a corner and keep saying look at that, stop, get the camera.  We know that later when we see the pictures we will not be able to identify them, but the point is the picture, not the name or exact location with these.  We are not looking at the Matterhorn, but maybe several hundred Matterhorns.

Ice field with tiny buses in background.  those are the ice field bus'es

    It is impossible to estimate the distances or size of anything at the Athabasca Glacier or the Columbia Ice field as there is almost no perspective to draw from.  You see this wall of ice and snow, very visible, but not close.  You see the massive field of snow in front of you, but it is a mystery as to how big it really is.  From the parking lot of the visitors center, you can see tiny dots of people and buses way up there. You think they are maybe 1 mile away, but then you realize that it has to be farther because of how small they appear.

     We purchased our tickets to take a “bus” ride up to the glacier and walk about it a bit.  We were at first a bit disappointed because we boarded a “normal tour type of bus” instead of the famous huge red ones that you see in ads and on TV.  Thought we were getting gipped.  This bus was just a shuttle to get us to the Ice Field Buses.

     Ice Field buses are really cool with tires that are 5 feet tall, and the bus looks like it has been jacked up for a monster truck rally.  Ours is not painted the typical red that you see, but is red, white and  green.  Tour guide refers to it as the Rastafarian Bus.  Ice Field bus has a top speed of 18 miles per hour and is not designed to travel on regular roads.  Tremendous power with almost balloon type tires for traction, it has the ability to climb what we estimate is a 30-35% grade on way back from ice field.

                                  Approaching bus is about 5o feet below us and maybe 100 feet away

    We are able to spend about 30 minutes walking on the glacier and are cautioned not to go off the area where the buses are parked.  The concern is that the glacier has soft spots and you could easily step on one and fall through a crevice.  You don’t have to tell us twice.

    The pictures will not give proper perspective, so we pass on what the guides tell us.  From our spot on the glacier, it is about 2 kilometers to the ice field.  From the ice field it is another 2 Km to the face of the mountain.  The wall of the mountain is app. 1 Km tall.  It is estimated the Glacier is 300 meters deep. Not only do the pictures not give proper perspective, but standing on the glacier it is impossible to grasp what we are looking at.

                                      Walls where glacier used to be, about 500 feet above our heads

       Off the glacier and onward we go on the Ice Field Parkway.  Gradually the dramatic mountain peaks lessen and then move to the background, replaced by forests and meadows as we gradually climb to Jasper.  On this stretch of road we sight our first Black Bear! 

     As we were driving on a particularly long straight stretch, we noticed a number of vehicles off to the side of the road, some going north, some going south, and some northbound parked  on the South bound side of the road, a sure sign that some type of wild life has been spotted.  We dutifully slowed down to a crawl until we came upon the stopped vehicles, rolled down the window and asked no one in particular if there was an animal sighting.  “Yes, there is baby bear on the other side of the road and down the embankment”.

    That was all we needed to park, get out and go over to see and take a picture. As Jim, who was driving got out, the baby bear climbed the embankment and started crossing the road.  This was no infant, but appeared to be maybe a yearling and we guessed about 150+ pounds.  As we were getting set to take a picture, one of the other tourists went to get up close to get a better picture, maybe as close as 10 feet.

      A bunch of people told her to get back that the momma bear was undoubtedly close by.  We got back in the RV and were about to drive off when we heard that the momma bear was in fact on our side of the road.  Irene looked out the window and in the mirror and finally located momma bear, about 75 yards behind us.  We go out, used the zoom lens and took a couple of pretty good pictures.  Momma seemed pretty calm and was eating the grass as we photographed her.   Deciding that she was best left alone, we mounted up and drove off.

   The rest of the drive on the parkway was relatively uneventful, not to say ugly.  Beautiful conifer forests with streams and frozen ponds all along the route.  About 20 minutes after spotting the Bears, we came upon 2 Caribou grazing along the road.  Magnificent looking animals, and built powerful enough to pull Santa’s Sleigh by themselves.

    We finally exited Jasper National Park about 5:00pm and were debating if we could make it to Edison, our planned stop for the night.  We decided that it would take another 2 hours and we needed rest more than distance.  As part of our planning, we had identified an alternative place to stay, the KOA at Hinton.  What a fortunate break.

    We pulled into the KOA about 6:00pm and registered.  Nicest, cleanest, neatest campground office we could imagine.  Site was beautiful with 4 or other GAH travelers there.  The owner of the KOA, Jim, hopped in his golf cart and led us to our site.

    Jim stayed to make sure everything was alright and we had a very nice conversation.  When we told him we would be leaving early to go to Edson and then cut across to 97n and up to Grande Prairie, he stopped us an asked why.  Told him that the road looked better from there up, he advised us to take Hwy 40 to Grande Prairie, that it would save us about 4 or 5 hours.

    This KOA is without a doubt the cleanest, and best run RV Park we can imagine.  Bathrooms are spotless, showers are clean and freshened up each day.  We give this park 5 stars.

   Tomorrow, the long journey continues.