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Today we left Jasper and headed along the ice fields parkway to stay at the Colombian ice fields hotel. It overlooks the athabasca glacier. We left Jasper about 9.30am and drove for a little while before pulling off at the first stop. There was a set of waterfalls called the Athabasca Falls. There was a boardwalk that you walk on to get different view points of the water. We got some great photos. The water flows over the falls then becomes the athabasca river where it's a bluey turquoise colour.
After visiting the athabasca falls we carried on driving until we reached the suwumpta falls. The path down was a bit slippery on some smooth rocks but we made it down. The fencing was a bit dodgy in parts but the view of the falls was good. Again we got some photos although Steph got closer to the edge than me! When we got back on the road we travelled for about an hour until we came across a motor home and two cars on opposite sides of the road with their hazard lights on. This normally means some sort of wildlife so I slowed down while we looked desperately
on both sides of the road to see what people were stopped looking at. There was a black bear about 6 metres from the road in the grass just ambling along. We were on the wrong side of the road so I did a 'u-ey' and pulled up behind the other cars on the hard shoulder. Steph was desperately trying to get a photo but the bear wasn't playing game and kept moving in the trees. After a while we turned around and headed on up to the Columbia ice fields visitor centre.
When we pulled up there were cars and coaches and RV's everywhere! This place was in the middle of nowhere! We parked up then went inside to book our tour time up onto the glacier. We'd prepaid for tickets but you couldn't book a time until you got to the centre. We were lucky and got a time in an hours time. This left us time to get lunch and take a look in the gift shop.
The whole centre was extremely busy and 90% of the tourists were Asian who were on organised tours. The centre caters to their audience and a lot of
the food was Chinese! The time came round for our tour time and Steph was trying to find somewhere to get a plastic bottle from as we'd read you can fill a bottle with water from the glacier and drink it. She had to buy a bottle of water from a machine then tip the water away ready for the glacier. You get herded onto a coach which travels for five minutes to a bus stop built close to the glacier and then you all pile off and then onto a specially designed ice bus. The tyres are huge and it looks like something that belongs on Mars! We were told that there are only 23 in the world and that the tour company owned 22 with the other one being used in the Antarctic.
We got on the ice explorer and travelled very slowly up a road and then came to a very steep 34 degree downhill section! The ice explorer slowly tipped over the edge and downwards. After a while we were travelling on the glacier to a parking area. There were about five other ice explorers parked up there and about 200 people milling around. We
were told we could go beyond the parking area as it was dangerous and there was an ice field with deep crevasses in. So it was a bit disappointing really as we just got to mill around for twenty minutes before getting the bus back. Steph was disappointed as we thought we would be able to go for a bit of a walk. There were rivers of the glacier water where you could see it was blue and we saw s couple of people fall over in it which was funny!
After the glacier we got a bus to the skywalk which was about 1km away. You got to walk along a constructed path along the edge of a mountain and then onto a section of curved metal with glass floor that stuck out over the river with a 220m drop below. I walked along the path until the curved out section and Steph walked around on the glass but I passed! I did however walk on a section that wasn't s glass floor but I could feel the vibrations of the metal beneath my feet and it made me feel a bit uneasy! After the skywalk we got
on the bus back to the visitor centre and checked into the hotel there. After fighting our way through the crowds with our bags we got inside the hotel room to find it was boiling hot. God knows why as its only about 4 degrees outside! There was no heaters I that we could see or any air con. There were two plug in fans which we've had going full blast since we arrived!
After chilling out in the room for a bit we went to go get dinner in the onsite restaurant (there is literally nothing else for miles!). The restaurant was nice but the food expensive especially when they add a sneaky automatic 15% service charge which Steph didn't notice and then went and tipped them on top! Our most expensive meal by a long way! Back at the room we've been looking out the window which incidentally doesn't face the glacier and just looks out the back! To see if we could spot any wildlife but nothing so far! We did see a couple of marmots on the trip up to the glacier on the ice explorer earlier which was cool. Overall we've been a bit
disappointed and felt the whole experience seems to be about making money which is a shame for something so naturally beautiful. In hindsight we would have driven on for another hour or so and stayed closer to Lake Louise. We'll be up early I think and crack on towards Lake Louise in the morning and onto our next hotel at Emerald Lake Lodge.
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