You know, very often things are over-hyped and nowhere near as good as their reputations. Today proved the exception to that rule by far. The Icefields Parkway more than delivered on everything we heard about it.
We left Jasper in yet another rain storm. I’m pretty sure we missed some awesome scenery there for awhile, because the cloud cover was really low until mid-afternoon.
First stop was Athabasca Falls, which were amazing:
Next stop was another waterfall, Sunoptwa Falls, which was even more impressive:
After a hike down the canyon to the lower falls and back up again, we decided to have a picnic in the car. We were joined by an overly friendly raven – not sure what he was hoping for but all he got were two New Yorkers shouting ‘Nevermore, m-therfucker’ at him.
We continued our drive down the parkway, pulling off everywhere to admire the scenery. At one stop we made friends with some more bighorn sheep:
Not five minutes later, we stopped to take pictures of this beautiful frozen waterfall, and ran into a herd of mountain goats:
Next stop was the Columbia Icefields, which were truly spectacular. We thought it would be cool to hike up to the toe of Athabasca Glacier (the only glacier you can really get to without being a goat), so we geared up – pretty damn cold up there – and set out.
We got about 10 minutes into our walk and ran into some snow, which we both stepped into up to our knees. I had the added bonus of falling over and not being able to get up because the snow was so soft. Of course that soaked our shoes and socks. Let me tell you, glacier run off is a whole other level of cold when it’s inside your shoe. We kept warm by laughing the entire way back down to the car.
Once we changed socks, we continued on our journey. The mountains just kept getting bigger and bigger – at one point, we were staring at a mountain face that was about 5 miles away, and it filled our peripheral vision and then some. The scenery was just unbelievable, even through the occasional snow squall.
On the side of the road we found a black bear, munching away:
The amazing thing about all these animals is that they are totally unafraid of humans. I don’t think that bear could have cared less about the twenty people gawking at him from 15 feet away.
All in all, today was one of the best days we’ve had so far – lots of amazing scenery, wildlife, and several moments of hysterical laughter trying to dress and undress inside a car.