Icefields Parkway

We knew it was going to be a truly gorgeous drive, and so in planning our trip to Canada's Banff and Jasper Natl Parks, we set aside one whole day to do the 143-mile trip up the Icefield Parkway. It's an easy 230 km - a wonderfully wide, mostly two lane (with ocassional turn lanes), open stretch with minimal curves and climbing.

The parkway is Alberta's Highway 93 and it runs parallel with the Continental Divide. The Rockies are at their best, many, even in September, still snow covered with the last winter's fall. There are crystal-clear glacier-fed lakes, water falls, glaciers and mountain peaks, none of which would be easy to pass without stopping. The parkway is named for the Columbia Icefield, one of the stops along the route.

We left Banff around 8:30 am, and at 6:30 in the evening, we were rolling into Jasper. It was an amazing excursion. There are few places in this world where it would take 10 hours to travel 140 miles.

The Columbia Icefield, for which the parkway gets its name, straddles the imaginary Continental Divide and is the source of eight major glaciers, three of which are visible from the parkway: the Saskatchewan, the Dome and the Athabasca.

The most visible is the Athabasca, above left. A walking path leads to the foot of the glacier, giving an up-close view of its massive size and reinforcing the concept that it is, indeed, melting at an alarming rate.

this is the path through the moraine leading up to the Athabasca Glacier. It's relatively steep, rocky and (at least the day we visited) a windy climb. Once you get to the foot, the actual glacier (that you can see just as well from the road) is blocked off by rope for safety purposes. There are, however, informative panels to read and the opportunity for better close-up shots, if you're a camera buff.