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Published: September 5th 2013
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September 3, 2013
Today we leave Patricia Lake Bungalows and the Jasper area and head down the Icefields Parkway to Banff.
One last lingering look out over beautiful Patricia Lake and another quick game of badminton with the boys before we leave. (Wherever we go, wherever we stay, there’s always something, apart from the obvious location etc. that stands out, sticks in the memory. It might be a board game played together all week or a rowing boat taken out on the lake a few times with attempts to fish and here in Patricia Lake it might well be the badminton. A few rackets and a net hung between 2 trees is all but we returned to it a few times in the short time we were here, often playing just as it got dark at night).
It’s a fair old drive down the Icefields Parkway and into Banff (about 6 hours in all) but there’s plenty to see on the way and the scenery is so spectacular that we can’t complain.
There must be a ‘Top Ten Drives in the World’ and the Icefields Parkway must surely fall in it. (That and the Sea
Sunwapta Falls
Icefield Parkway to Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler!).
We have three “must see” places on the way down and first, just 30 km south of Jasper, is the Athabasca Falls. The car park is quite full as we pull in and so we expect something spectacular. We’re not disappointed. The sheer power of water makes the biggest impression here and the boys both remark on how smooth the rocks are, pummeled tirelessly by the raging water that can’t wait to make it to the calmer river at the bottom of the canyon.
Matthew locates little sinkholes along the river bank at the base of the falls, which are fascinating, a shallow looking pool with half a dozen or so tiny spiralling whirlpools.
Next on our schedule are the Sunwapta Falls, which are also very impressive but the boys are beginning to loose interest and are grateful to hurry back to the car when offered the keys. I fear it’s a classic case of the “once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all”. Is there a lesson to be learnt here? In exposing them to all these wonders of the world at a relatively early age will they become
Athabasca Glacier
In Columbia Icefields blasé? I hope not and I don’t think so. We do our best to invoke a sense of wonder and on the whole they appreciate what they see, especially Sam, being that bit older, which just goes to prove that we have hopefully timed this trip about right. Any sooner and Matthew would not have been ready and any older and Sam will be in the throws of GSCE years.
The Icefield Parkway is of course named for its ice fields and our next stop is the Columbia Icefield and more specifically the Athabasca Glacier. The icefield lies on a wide, elevated plateau and is the largest in the Canadian Rockies and the most visited in North America. The Pacific winds carry moisture across the BC interior and as they hit the high peaks around the icefield the precipitation falls as snow, up to 7 metres a year!
This is way more snow that can melt during the short summer season so it accumulates, over time turning into ice which spills out through gaps in the mountains, creating the great ice tongues called glaciers.
The ice moves continuously, a few centimeters each day, like a frozen, slow-moving
river, but because of global warming, the Athabasca Glacier has also been melting for the last 125 years and receding at a rate of 2 to 3 metres a year. From as far back at the 1920’s, markers are positioned to show where the glacier used to be and it was interesting to note the position of it when we last visited about 20 years ago!
Six glaciers in all flow from the Columbia Icefield in this area and together they fill three major rivers which in turn flow into three different oceans. The Athabasca Glacier feeds the Athabasca River, which eventually flows north into the Arctic Ocean. The Saskatchewan Glacier enters into the Saskatchewan River which eventually flows east into the Atlantic and finally meltwater from the Columbia Glacier feeds into the Fraser and Columbia rivers which flow west across BC and out into the Pacific.
If these glaciers disappear altogether a critical water supply for North America will be gone. During the hot, dry summer of 1998 the Athabasca Glacier was the only thing that kept certain rivers flowing.
Ok, geography lesson over! BC Parks have become ultra safety conscious thanks to a handful of
Athabasca Falls
Jumping the canyon! tourists falling to their deaths in the deep, hidden crevasses so unless you’ve paid for the coach trip and guide you can’t climb up onto it (as we were able to back in the 90’s). But there’s really no need; it’s an awesome sight after an uphill climb from the car park - although a stiff wind blows (thanks to the colder, denser air coming down from the peaks) and we’re grateful to return to the car.
That evening we finally arrive in Banff and check into the Douglas Fir Resort on Tunnel Mountain for 3 nights. We’ve stayed here a few times – all during the ski season and like the A-Frame chalet best (it’s completely detached!). We’ve got No.115 this time and it’s in a fabulous position on the very edge of the resort.
We look down over the forested valley beneath Tunnel Mountain and from our deck we can’t see anything else of the resort!
The attraction for the boys is the waterslides and we head over there pretty much straight away. It’s a nice release of energy after having spent much of the day in the car and great fun!
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