Jasper to Banff

We had breakfast at the Jasper House for the second time since it was on Hwy 93 on our way out of town. We then headed down the Icefields Parkway and made it to the glacier region a lot quicker this time since we had covered this route on the way to the Columbia Ice Fields. South of there was new territory, so we slowed down a bit. Even the second time, the drive through the mountains was exhilirating.

We just had to stop and look again at these hanging glaciers up on the mountainside and the lush forest and river below them. This is the kind of scene that makes driving through the Canadian Rockies so memorable. This is about 80km south of Jasper.

One of the most remarkable sights to us were the deep snow ledges on the tops of some of the mountains.

This may be commonplace to the residents of this area, but this deep snow was amazing to southern folks like us.

This mountain and glacier had been clouded over on our previous visit. The broad glacial river reminded us of Alaska. It was neat to see the clouds being formed at the mountain peaks.

This area is just north of the Icefields Center, which is 105 km south of Jasper.

We arrived again at the Columbia Ice Fields where we had visited three days ago. The two hanging glaciers up on the mountain are on Mt. Athabasca and Andromeda and the lower ice sheet is the Athabasca Glacier. It is the one we walked on. The mountain below to the right of the others is Kitchener Mt. and I believe its glacier is called Dome Glacier.

It was a treat to see Bridal Veil Falls (left, above), which are just about 8km south of the Icefields Center. Just past there we could look down on the road following a winding river below us. Then we got the view above right of an amazing chain of waterfalls and cascades from high up in the mountains. The long view starting at right is just the bottom half of the series!

We stopped off at the visitor center at the junction where Hwy leads off to Red Deer to the east. This is the view of the mountains from that point.

We continued southward on the fabulous Icefields Parkway through the mountains.

The high ice walls and ice fields were amazing to us.