Glacier Walk

Most Americans spend the Fourth of July either lighting or watching fireworks. In Canada, the 4th is just another day. The Canadian Independence Day is July 1, which we experienced in 2023 on our trip to Vancouver. This year we arrived a day late, so no fireworks or independence celebrations (of either country) for us. Our day was spent looking at gorgeous lakes and walking on a glacier. 

We were up and out the door to catch our tour coach at 8:15. Our driver was John and there were two couples and a family of four with us on the trip. All of us were from the U.S. Our destination was the Columbia Icefield and more specifically, Athabasca Glacier. However, we made several stops on our way there and back to view several lakes. John told us assorted facts about the Bow River and the Bow Range of mountains as we drove the more than 2-hour drive. or so. 

The first stop was a viewing point of Crowfoot Glacier. This glacier is one of several along the Icefield's Parkway. It got its name because it looks like a crow's foot. It is small and shrinking like most glaciers and is no longer attached to an icefield. It feeds into Bow Lake which supplies Bow River. John helped us to understand the difference between an ice field and a glacier. While both are large masses of ice. The ice field is the origin of glaciers. As the snow and ice grow heavy, the ice gets pushed down the mountain, forming a glacier that carves out the land. The Columbia Icefield is the largest in the Rocky Mountains and has six different glaciers. 

Next stop was Bow Lake. In the morning sun, it was amazing to see the reflection off the water. All we could do was say, "Wow!" over and over again. It looked like an impressionist painting. The colors that reflected off of the lake were so vibrant and beautiful. We took a bunch of photos and then back in the van for a long drive through beautiful mountain scenery until we arrived at the Athabasca Glacier Visitor Centre at 11:00. We took photos of the glacier from a distance, and ate a quick lunch at the cafe.

Our call time for boarding was 12:00 and we were on a large bus that drove us about 5 minutes to the base of the glacier. Then we transferred to an Ice Explorer, a gigantic vehicle with 6 tires as tall as me. There are only 24 ice explorers in the world. 22 of them are at the Athabasca Glacier and the other two are in Antarctica. The ice explorer is designed to travel on the glacier. We drove very slowly down a steep hill with a 30% grade. Our driver, Jake, called it the slowest roller coaster in the world. It took about 15 minutes and then we were on the ice. There was a white crust that is similar to crushed ice over the blue ice of the glacier. Where the ice was melting, it was slushy, and small streams of water flowed down the slope. You could dip your water bottle in for a taste of glacial water right from the source. We were only allowed in a roped-off section of the glacier. The rest was off-limits. They grade the section to ensure that it is safe. Across the rope lines, you could see that the glacier looked dirty. This is a collection of dust and ash from the air as well as rocks from erosion as the glacier moves. The Athabasca Glacier is the second-largest glacier in the Columbia Icefield and the most easily accessible. While it grows a little each day, it melts even more. It is decreasing in size by 4 - 6 meters in a year. If trends continue, it is expected to disappear by the end of this century. 

After about 30 minutes on the ice, we took the slow trip on the Ice Explorer back to the bus. It was then about a 20-minute ride to the Skywalk, a one km walkway extending over the side of a cliff. The floor of the walkway is glass and it is a little crazy to look at your feet and see the 918 feet drop below you. You can see the river flowing through the canyon and assorted waterfalls from your viewpoint. The Skywalk was very busy and crowded, so it was not the most pleasant experience and you weren't able to stay long since so many people were trying to take their photos, but I am glad we did it. 

The bus took us back to the Visitor Centre where we met up with John for the trip back. We stopped at Waterfowl Lake, which has turquoise green water. John told us that there are 5 lakes in Canada that are the most beautiful, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, and Emerald Lake. Everyone goes to Lake Louise and Moraine when they are visiting Banff. We had seen Bow Lake earlier in the day and our last stop would be Peyto Lake. John wanted us to see Waterfowl Lake because it has a similar coloring to Emerald Lake and that was the one people might not get to on a trip to the Canadian Rockies. Waterfowl Lake was lovely and as we got closer to the town of Banff, we stopped one last time for a 5 minute hike to a viewpoint of Peyto Lake which was just stunning. The color of the lakes which range from sapphire blue to teal green is because of fine dust as the glaciers erode the mountains. It is called rock flour which is so light that it floats on the surface of the water absorbing the red, yellow, and orange light, but reflecting the green and blue rays which is what our eyes see. 

We arrived back in Canmore at 6:30 pm. It had been a long and memorable trip. We were hungry so we stopped at Red Rock Pizza for dinner. It was a local pizza shop with yummy pizza and a really good crust. Joe ordered Wild Chicken, which had buffalo chicken, bacon, pineapple, and ranch dressing. David and I split a Margherita pizza which was delicious. It had a pesto sauce along with the tomatoes and cheese. The thing that made it most tasty was the balsamic drizzle. We also got some homemade macaroni and cheese which was much better than the nachos, according to David, our cheese connoisseur. After purchasing a few pastries from the bakery next door, we headed back to our suite and watched the movie Interstellar so we could look for scenes of Canmore.

We slept in a bit this morning and are headed into Banff. I have a list of things I want to do and I am hoping we can also make the trip to Emerald Lake, about an hour away. Then I can say I have seen the five most beautiful lakes in Canada! The only downside is that it is supposed to rain today, so we may have to work around a few showers.

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