Canadian Capers: Glaciers galore ~ Driving the Icefield Parkway

Paul and I had prebooked our Icefield Parkway tour (thanks Chelsea) before leaving Australia and we were both unsure of what we were embarking on come Wednesday morning when we had an early start. Should we wear our thermals, how many layers do we wear so in the end we decided to fall back on the scouts philosophy of always being prepared. Picked up at our accommodation by the best ever bus/tour guide Ed from Galway Ireland we continued on until we had a bus load of scouts and headed towards our destination.

The drive through the Rocky Mountains Continental Divide saw us sweeping through peak after peak of snow capped formations was unbelievable. Paul was not sure what to photograph as it was so visually stunning your eyes and brain were overwhelmed to the point of no return. I can't even imagine how it would be in winter here other than being cold. We had some stops along the way at various lakes which were all beautiful in their own way but I guess we were excited about the thought of walking on an actual glacier.

Arriving at the base camp a three storey purpose built interprative building we had a quick lunch break before being ferried out to the base of the glacier to hop into a 6WD monster bus with 2m high tyres - reportedly worth 1.2 million each with a total of 26 of these vehicles world wide with the only 2 outside the icefields being purchased by the AUS and the USA governments for their use in Antarctica.

The short 6WD trip felt like you were driving through a snow covered open cut mine site in Australia which culminated in a 30 minute walk around the glacier for some stunning photographs. We also had a chat with the 2IC from the local National Parks body who was out of his office for the day. It was most disconcerting to hear that this particular glacier is shrinking 5M vertically and 15M horizontally each year - and people are still sceptical about global warming.

Following our walk on the glacier we travelled 15mins on another bus to experience the recently constructed skywalk, a man made steel structure on the edge of a steep 80m ravine. The skywalk culminated in a circular glass floor deck hanging out over the valley which proved impossible for some people to take the giant step for mountainside views. One lonely mountain goat was visible through the glass laying around catching up on some sun and sleep.

After this we headed home with a stop off at Lake Peyto, another watery icon.....it's getting hard to expand my vocab to do the visual wonders justice. Back to Banff we met up with the Brooks family for a meal a notable pizza evening at the Bear Street tavern.