Athabasca Glacier, rugged mountains

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The Athabasca Glacier, on the edge of the Columbia Icefields, was a 90-minute drive north along the Icefields Parkway. Shortly before arriving at the Glacier Discovery Center, heavy snow began to fall. After a half-hour delay to clear the roads, we boarded a bus which took us to a Ice Explorer snow bus which took us through a rocky glacial moraine, descending to the glacier via a 32% grade. We were able to walk around on the glacier though wind and snow limited our excursion to 15 minutes. Still, it was pretty amazing. Back on our own bus we dug into deli sandwiches and headed south.

Our Jasper guide used the bus time to orient us to Jasper National Park, life of a park warden, overview of its plants and animals -- we saw several elk, two with huge racks. We walked in to Athabasca Falls and also walked a loop in the Maligne Canyon.

Back in Jasper we three tried out the Jasper Brewery -- Rockhopper IPA comes well-recommended. Dinner was at the hotel, went to bed soon after.

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