Field to Sunwapta Falls

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Today was the day for our first drive along the Icefield Parkway, which is considered to be one of the most scenic routes in the world. We checked out of our Inn, but before we hit the parkway we had a stop to make at the Spiral Tunnels. We had already called at this view point twice yesterday, but had not managed to catch a train going through them. They were built in 1909 to help reduce the dangerous gradient between the summit of Kicking Horse Pass and Field. The very long trains double back on themselves twice in front of this viewpoint and today it was 3rd time lucky!



With our first mission of the day successfully completed we set off on our drive; we only had about 110 miles to travel, but we knew it would take us all day. This was because of the very many features and viewpoints along the way, not to mention the promise of wildlife. After visiting 2 lakes we turned a bend and in front of us spied cars parked by the roadside - bear jam. We quickly pulled behind them and sure enough there in a clearing was a mother black bear with her cub. We watched them until, as usual, they disappeared into the trees.

Next stop was at our first glacier, the Crowfoot Glacier, which unfortunately now only has 2 toes, the lowest one having melted and disappeared by the 1940's. A spur road then took us a short distance to a parking area, where a beautiful trail took us up through forest pine trees still surrounded with snow, to one of the highlights of the Parkway, a spectacular view over turquoise Peyto lake.

We carried on stopping at many more viewpoints and ate our picnic lunch overlooking another glacier. Another famous viewpoint is Weeping Wall and the parking area here was very busy. We soon found out why - a mother black bear and her 2 cubs could be seen across the North Saskatchewan river. This was our best sighting so far, as the bears were visible for a long time - we even saw mum having a back scratch!

Another famous stop is the Athabasca Glacier. Here you can actually walk on the glacier, but this is quite expensive and we knew we didn't have time today. Instead we just walked up to it, well muffled up against the cold wind blowing here. As we headed back to Dora the weather really closed in and it was soon snowing!!

After visiting the Icefield Centre across from the glacier, the snow eased, so we set off again. It was still cold outside and we discovered that Dora not only had heated seats, but also a heated steering wheel!!
As it was getting late we decided to head for our stop, which is at Sunwapta Falls on the Parkway. We turned a sharp bend and there in the middle of the road was a mountain goat with attitude, just like the VW advert. It was going nowhere, so all the traffic, including a bus, had to drive off the road around it.

So another fabulous day, lots of scenery, wildlife and weather. Tomorrow we will continue the drive to Jasper.

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