July 24, Icefields Parkway

Today we headed towards Jasper on the Icefields Parkway, which curves around mountains and climbs high passes as it crosses one of the most exceptional landscapes in North America.  Giving you close-up views of the kind of scenery normally inaccessible by road, it runs along the Continental Divide, the backbone of the Rocky Mountains, close to the border of Alberta and British Columbia.  Craggy, iceclad peaks, many rising to more than 11,000 ft. above sea level, tower above crystalline lakes, subalpine meadows rife with wildflowers, and treeless tundra that is speckled with patches of snow even in the summer.  The road passes along the fringe of the 30 sq. ft. mile Columbia Icefields, the largest subpolar glacial area in North America.  This remnant of the last great ice age feeds 8 major glaciers and is the source of three of the continent's major river systems--the Athabasca, North Saskatchewan, and Columbia Rivers.  We made it to the Icefield Center, but as temperatures were almost at freezing we stayed only a short time there, then decided to start back for the United States, as road conditions were rather slippery in spots at that point.  We motored to Banff, Calgary, and then started going south and ended up at a campground at Okotoks, above Fort Macleod, right on the Sheep River.