“Most Scenic Road in the World”

Friday

So much beauty today-- we’re on overload!  The Ice Field, Glacier, Atabasca Falls, all the majestic mountains were just more than we could take in.

I always wondered about the strange name of the Banff Natn’l Park and  the explanation is simple--the two men who founded it were from Banfshire, Scotland.  And Jasper Hodd, a fur trader was the namesake for the other town we’ve visited.    As I mentioned yesterday, the Maligne fire was discovered a few hours after we were there- supposedly caused by lightening.   This morning the sky in that direction was grey and thick and had a nasty smoke smell.  As we moved away from Jasper, the air became clearer and we weren’t aware of smoky smells.

Our first stop was Atabasca Falls where we walked along the rushing water.  Pictures don’t do this phenomenon justice.  I did take video so you could experience the sight and sounds, but I've discovered that this blog doesn't support sound, so....

We learned some early Canadian history about the RCMP, about Metis Uprising, and lots of info about how Canada became a country and again how they became independent in the ‘30’s

Our big adventure for the day was walking on the Columbia Ice Field, Atabasca Glacier.  We had been told to dress warmly and in shoes with a good tread because of the slipperiness.  

Many people, however, were dressed for a picnic in shorts and sandals.  Those who know how cold I get can see from the pictures—I was prepared.   There was another tour bus of folks who began stripping down to bathing suits after they got on the glacier.

 Having walked on glaciers before, this one was different.  A staff member had road maintenance equipment running, clearing a spot for us to stand.  It was like standing on really crunchy snow.    We learned lots of terminology about glaciers such as moraine (piles of rock left behind by a glacier), Alpine zone (not much vegetation- too cold), cryocanite-I guessed at this spelling (atmospheric emissions on glacier which causes faster melting)  , blue ice (glacial ice is compressed snow under immense pressure), TerraBus (the vehicle that took us to the glacier- today cost $1.3 million each)   We all know that the ice fields and glaciers are melting quickly, but we were told that this one loses 30 feet per year and in 90 years this glacier will be gone.






We traveled with a group from the Univ. of Illinois and they had a group picture made in the area in front of the glacier.  A really friendly, welcoming group of people. 

After enjoying the glacier, we drove to a picnic area and had the lunch that we had ordered the day before.   Our eating spot was right beside the Saskatchewan River.   Later we stopped at the Peyto Lake and the Bow River. 

We’re at the Caribou Lodge for 2 nights (and oh, yeah, the bathroom has a carved caribou head on the wall)

As I said before the pictures that I will post here (a few days after returning) won’t do the amazing beauty of this area justice.  It is something to be seen in person to be believed.