I am writing this blog as a passenger in the RV while Cazzie is driving. There are times when we will spend most of the day travelling as Canada and America are so huge!
When I last left you we were in Jasper and planning our route to Banff and this involved 3 stops.
1 - Athabasca Falls. The Athabasca river is the longest river in Canada and runs for 1231 kms. The river runs quite peacefully up until it hits softer rock, it erodes it and Athabasca Falls is born. This place is very similar to Maligne Canyon with its frozen waterfalls, swirling pools and blue rivers.
The place is, as all attractions in the National Park, really lovely.
2 – The Columbia Ice Fields. We drove past this on the way up to Jasper from Revelstoke and noticed that there was a visitors centre here. Having seen the leaflets for trips to this Ice Field, we decided to stop on the way to Banff to see what it was all about. Once in the centre, we booked ourselves onto the 90 min tour. This involved getting a bus to the huge Ice Explorer that would then transport us onto the ice field. We hopped on and started a very steep decent to the ice field and then a very slow drive into the middle if it. The ice fields have been created by the coming together of 4 glaciers that create a huge sheet of ice, which in places is over 300 metres thick – that’s the size of the Eiffel Tower. The main glacier is the Athabasca Glacier. As we stepped onto the ice to try and take photos, we were told to stay within the marked areas, as there was a chance you could fall into potholes in the ice and never be seen again. So, remaining very close to the Ice Explorer, we attempted to take photos, which wasn’t easy!
It was very windy and very cold. The lowest recorded temperature here was minus 76 degrees! One thing that did hit home a little was the effect that global warming has had on this place. The ice field has retracted over 100 metres during the past 50 years and is shrinking at a faster rate the ever – about 10 metres per year. We don’t ever really get to see the effects of global warming the the UK, so this got me thinking. Our tour guide in Jasper informed us that the lakes and rivers have dropped by 60 % in the past 20 years too.
3 – Lake Louise. This place was always on the list to go to. I had heard so many nice things about the place, such as it’s the most beautiful, scenic place you will ever go to. We arrived, parked up and took the short walk to the lake and we were not disappointed. It was beautiful. The lake was so still, the views were amazing, there was snow covering the ground and there wasn’t a gust of wind in the air. It also felt like Christmas with all the pine trees about! What was really good about the place was all the touristy shops were 5 kms before the lake, so the lake itself wasn’t spoilt. The only hotel that was there was the impressive Fairmont. We walked 2 kms down one side of the lake and took as many photos as we could, and this one is my favourite.
I could go on about all these places, but again, the photos that I took tell a much better story. Just click on these links and you will see them all.
This has probably been the best day of the trip so far.
After Lake Louise we headed to Banff, which will be the subject of my next blog!
Stuoobs
xxx
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