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Published: January 26th 2010
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Today was one of the earliest starts but so worth it. We traveled along the Icefields Parkway, considered one of the most scenic highways in the world.
We stopped at a shop for lunch and started to layer up for the glacier. My layers were something like leggings and 2 pairs knee high socks under thick fluffy track pants, singlet top, t-shirt, cardigan, jacket and my grouse mountain jacket on top of all that.
We then headed to the Columbia Icefield where we would travel to the Athabasca Glacier. The Columbia Icefield is located in Jasper National Park. The Icefield - the largest sub-polar body of ice in North America - is one of the reasons why the United Nations declared Canada's four Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Sites. The Icefield covers 325 square kilometres with solid ice up to 365 metres (1200 feet) deep. Meltwater from the Icefield flows to three oceans: the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic via Hudson Bay
When we got to the Icefields Centre we had some time to look around and stock up on souvenirs and more warm clothing if required, then we hopped on the Ice Explorer and headed onto the Athabasca
Glacier’s icy slopes.
We then hopped on the ice explorer which has wheels like a tank and is built for the ice. The whole trip was about 1.5 hrs. It was so cold even in all my gear. We were all cold and the people running the tour were laughing at us telling us it was a warm summer day. We got to spend about 20 minutes on the glacier and took some amazing photos. It was so beautiful. There's some roped off areas you should not go near because the ground and ice is unstable. People who have ignored the signs have died as they have fallen and frozen to death before they could be rescued.
After the glacier we has a picnic in some park and the boys decided to play footy. The footy ended up in the river, which was running pretty fast. All the boys took off after it and made a few rescue attempts and one by one came back with the most devastated looks on their faces. It was pretty funny. We said it was ok, we would probably find it in Lake Louise.
Lake Louise was our next stop and
we were given a few hour to look around. It was so beautiful. The color of the lake was incredible. Photos can barley do it justice. We had a little bit of a walk around the river so we could take photos from different angles and take photos of Lake Louise with the famous Fairmount in the background. We also went into the hotel and took some photos. Inside was a lady playing the harp and also some shops.
It was an amazing day for photos with some of the most amazing scenery you will ever see.
We arrived in Banff not long after and stopped at a grocery store. Our accommodation at Banff was in Chalets of 4 people. We were split into our groups. Cat and I were bunked with Hayley and Sandra. We were each given $10 from our Contiki guide to buy ourselves breakfast for the next 2 days. I ended up buying 2 yogurts. Everything else we bought was pretty much crap.
The rooms were all similar but a little different. There was a loft upstairs with 2 beds, a sofa bed and a spare room. Cat and i fought over the
spare room but it was actually the room you walk into and through to get to the rest of the house so Cat ended up not wanting it but I was still happy to take it.
We then ended up going to Pump and Tap and watched a replay of the state of origins final game. It was close and Cat could not take the suspense, messaging her sister and finding out we lost before the game was over. Bit of a bummer! After that we kicked on at Auroras and then off to bed, much later then planned. We were supposed to take it easy due to another jammed packed day. Usually the tour spends 3 nights in banff, giving 2 full days in Banff so optionals are spread over 2 days. Our tour spent less time in Banff however as we were heading to Calgary stampede so our optionals were jam packing into one day starting with the ATV's at 7:30 am.
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