July 15; from Jasper to Banff

A few miles out of the town of Jasper, we saw a “critter jam”.  Jim does his best not to pass up such opportunities.  There were 8 to 10 female and Juvenile elk near the road.  We had seen female elk a few times before, but this had a special twist.  Every one of them was looking off to one side.  Perhaps there was a predator there, but nobody saw one.

Our first goal for the day was Athabasca Falls, about 18 miles from the town of Jasper.  The waterfall is “only” about 80 feet high but has a very large volume flowing over it and it cuts interesting slices from the rocks.

One place traps logs.  We watched 2 logs get trapped and a different one come free.

A Parks Canada Guide  showed how to tell different animals by their antlers.

Our next destination was the Columbia Icefields Visitors’ Center and the nearby Athabasca Glacier.  The center had a model of the huge icefield that is over 125 square miles in area and over 1100 feet deep in places.  It feeds 8 major glaciers and covers the only triple continental divie in North America.  Some of its melted ice ends up in the Atlantic Ocean (via Hudson Bay), some in the Pacific and some in the Arctic Ocean.

Ardith especially liked the quilt done by both French and English women in the town of Jasper.  This area is still part of Jasper National Park.

Across the parkway from the visitors’ center is the Athabasca Glacier, the most visited in North America. 

Since we had both walked on glaciers previously, we bypassed the bus tours that take you onto the glaciers and let you walk around under the surveillance of a guide.  The buses have 6 wheel drive and monstrous tires.  We drove across the street and Jim hiked to near the toe of the glacier.  Everybody was heeding the warning signs (and fence) and not attempting to approach the glacier that way. Jim fully understood why.

The road between Jasper and Lake Louise is called Icefields Parkway.  Nearly every peak along it was ice capped in mid-July. 

There are other glaciers that are visible from there.

Also other waterfalls:

At one of many stops, Jim got an opportunity for a picture of a Clark’s Nuthatch that was perched on a pole.

We just had some granola bars earlier, so we were ready to eat when we pulled into the town of Lake Louise at about 4:15.  We drove past a shopping center that had some chain restaurants, but decided to press on in quest for something different, despite it not looking likely.  There was a sign with utensils pointing down a fairly unpopulated road.  We pulled up to a nice looking log building that was the former railroad station.  A small sign indicated it was a restaurant, but there was only 1 car in the parking lot.  We thought it might be closed.  We ventured in and were told “yes, we are open and ready to serve you” in response to our query.  It was just an odd time to be eating and other folks came in later.  The place was quite charming with a lot of furniture that probably dated back to the 1930s or earlier.  We had our choice of seats and sat by the fireplace – a nice thing after several chilly outings. 

Our food was quite tasty.  Jim had a wonderful spinach salad and Ardith had a prime rib “sandwich” complete with Yorkshire pudding that she absolutely adored.  Despite having had almost no lunch, we passed on desserts.

We were free to roam the interior of the building.  There were lots of artifacts from its day as a railroad station, including old photos.   The real treasures were the old posters for the Canadian Pacific Railroad.  Ardith’s favorite great uncle had worked for the CPR for 50 years, much of it as a conductor.  He was often gone on long trips.  We speculated about his having been here many times.

There were some older rail cars on the premises that were set up as places to hold parties or other special events.

Several lists of local wildlife between Alaska and here had mentioned marmots.  Jim had been looking for them, with no success.  There was a colony lining in the lawn here, so Jim was quite happy.

From there, we proceeded to the actual lake at Lake Louise. 

Several sources had told us it should be avoided between 10AM and 5PM.  We arrived about 5:30 and crowds were quickly thinning.  This lovely lake has only one focal point, so there is a large parking lot and a large bus drop-off place.  By the time we sauntered past the huge, elegant old hotel, there were only a few dozen people remaining.  We at last have some photographic evidence that the 2 of us were at the same place at the same time (OK, Jim could have faked it in Photoshop).

We walked around a large part of the lake and got pictures from different angles.

The road from Lake Louise (which is in Banff National Park) to the town of Banff is along the Trans Canada Highway and travels through relatively flat territory.  They are attempting to allow wildlife to thrive in the area while minimizing the chances of motorist – critter crunches, so they have erected miles of high heavy duty fencing along with elaborate crossing places roughly every 2 kilometers.  There were also a few tunnels for smaller creatures.  There is a major effort underway to allow re-introduction of bison to the area.  These were completely eliminated in the Canadian Rockies by the fur trade in the 19^th century.  The crossings and other protections are vital to this effort.