Tangle Falls

After a quick look through the Columbia Icefield Centre we headed north towards Tangle Falls, it was only 7.5 kms north of the centre.

You can see the edge of the centre in this photo below, I was trying to capture the shelves of ice beyond it.

Tangle Falls. While we were here a mountain goat walked across the top.

Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier

The next day we got up early and walked around the right side of the lake and the grounds of Num-Ti-Jah. We couldn't hike to the falls as there was still too much snow on the track.

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.

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.

Bow Lake

Beautiful Bow Lake is fed by meltdown from the Bow Glacier, it is the principle headwaters of the Bow River. (the one we canoed) Bow Summit, at 2,087.9 meters, is the highest point along the route. Some describe this as the most beautiful part of the Rockies.

This lake is frozen for a good part of the year, it begins to thaw in June. We checked the water, it's still pretty cold.
Crowfoot Mountain, you could hear small avalanches of snow and ice rushing down the sides. It sounds like far off trains.

Num-Ti-Jah Lodge

We drove on to Num-Ti-Jah Lodge, about 40kms north of Lake Louise. The views of the Rockies were stunning as you can see.

Driving in the gateway of Num-Ti-Jah, Bow Lake and Crowfoot Mountain are on the left and the Bow Glacier is directly in front. Tour buses stop in the car park at the beginning of the driveway for photos, there is also a well stocked gift shop.

Num-Ti-Jah is one of the most interesting historic lodges in the Banff National Park.

This is the view from our room. There are only 25 rooms at the lodge.

..and with the window open.

Our room was on the 2nd floor, you can see the window is open. We had to be careful leaving it open as Ravens fly in and steal snacks if anything is left out. We also had a resident squirrel who ran up the down pipe and onto the roof.



The Elkhorn dining room looks quite rustic but the service and the food were anything but. We had the best seats by the window, with the most beautiful views. I decided to order the chicken instead of elk with all the mounted deer, elk and moose heads on the walls.

Library - note the chairs made from antlers.

You can hire snowshoes (not these ones) here at $5 a pair. We only walked part way round the lake but we would have needed them if we had decided to do the hike to the falls. There was still a lot of snow on the ground and most of the trail was covered.

It doesn't get dark here till about 10.30pm and is light again at about 4am.

Icefields Parkway

We left Lake Louise village and turned onto highway 93, the Icefields Parkway road, reputedly the highest major road in Canada and "one of the most scenic roads in the world." Along the road are some of the highest and most rugged mountains in the Canadian Rockies. Nestled in amongst these peaks are the 12 Icefields that give this highway its name.

We did see a moose on the road but we were so preoccupied with not hitting it with the car that I forgot to take a photo.

We also saw a mother grizzly bear and 2 cubs grazing in a clearing on our side of the road. We slowed down to take photos through the window of the car. We could not believe our eyes when tourists who pulled up behind us, got out of their cars and walked up to the bears for better photos. Perhaps they thought they were teddy bears. These bears can run up to 55 kilometers per hour and are wild, we were quite happy in the car.

The grizzly has a large hump over the shoulders which is a muscle mass used to power the forelimbs in digging.

You can see from these photos why they are sometimes called the silver tip bear.