We then drove north along the Icefields Parkway (highway 93) to the Columbia Icefield.
There was still a lot of snow around the Bow Lake area but less as we drove along the highway.
On the way we had to stop for a black bear crossing the road.
We stopped off at the Weeping Wall, photo below. These bighorn sheep also decided to check out the viewpoint pull-out.
The scenery changed again as we arrived at the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier, it's 103kms north of Lake Louise. The Columbia Icefield is a remnant of the Ice Age. It encompasses 8 separate rivers of ice called glaciers. The tongue of the Athabasca Glacier flows out of the Columbia Icefield see the photo below. You can travel by bus out onto the glacier itself. Sounds scary but the ice is as deep as the Empire State building is high. More than 365 metres.
That's Mt Athabasca on the left.
You travel first by regular bus and then transfer to an Ice Explorer bus. These buses are 6 wheeled all-terrain vehicles and cost $900,000 each.
There are two Ice Explorer buses going up the left side of the glacier in the photo below. They are tiny black specs, which gives you an idea of the size of the glacier. The Athabasca Glacier only makes up 2% of the total mass of the Columbia Ice field. It's meltwater feeds the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
There was still a lot of snow around the Bow Lake area but less as we drove along the highway.
This photo below shows how jagged some of the peaks are in this part of the Rockies.
On the way we had to stop for a black bear crossing the road.
We stopped off at the Weeping Wall, photo below. These bighorn sheep also decided to check out the viewpoint pull-out.
The scenery changed again as we arrived at the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier, it's 103kms north of Lake Louise. The Columbia Icefield is a remnant of the Ice Age. It encompasses 8 separate rivers of ice called glaciers. The tongue of the Athabasca Glacier flows out of the Columbia Icefield see the photo below. You can travel by bus out onto the glacier itself. Sounds scary but the ice is as deep as the Empire State building is high. More than 365 metres.
That's Mt Athabasca on the left.
You travel first by regular bus and then transfer to an Ice Explorer bus. These buses are 6 wheeled all-terrain vehicles and cost $900,000 each.There are two Ice Explorer buses going up the left side of the glacier in the photo below. They are tiny black specs, which gives you an idea of the size of the glacier. The Athabasca Glacier only makes up 2% of the total mass of the Columbia Ice field. It's meltwater feeds the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
This is how big the Ice Explorer buses really are. Note the tyres, Craig is 5'11".
Even though we were surrounded by snow and ice it was 25 degrees so we didn't need jackets. It was pretty weird at first walking around on a glacier, but you soon got used to it. This area is checked each morning for fissures.
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