We put Lake Louise and some blue sky in our rear view
mirror about 8:15
And headed north on the Icefields Parkway into skys
obscured with a high overcast. The forecast called for frozen mix but the roads
were clear and dry. (Sometimes you have to stand in the middle of the road to get the picture you want!)
As we traveled north we started seeing some massive
rock walls, including this one with interesting texture.
We saw our first wildlife of the day
just before the Bridal Veil Falls viewpoint where only the lower half of the Falls made it in the picture.
We stopped at the Icefields Centre to gaze at the
glaciers but did not partake of the available bus ride on the glacier.
BJ did make friends with the stuffed Mountie mascots.
We enjoyed a few minutes watching a black bear
foraging near the road (speaking of road - long sections that looked nice but felt like driving on railroad ties, other long sections with frost heaves)
before stopping to view Athabasca Falls where the
river drops into a VERY narrow gorge. The river, which started at the glaciers,
flows to the Artic ocean.
Home for the night is the Parks West Mall in Hinton, Alberta.
They host Safeway, Walmart, and Canadian Tire stores as well as the shops in
the mall and post signs welcoming RVs to stay overnight. Their free and fast wireless supported posting the most recent posts.
Thanks for taking the time to create a wonderful blog. The pics. are excellent, and it's fun to follow. We have done this trip three times so far. The DW is a teacher, so we were always about five or six weeks later as we travelled through the same areas. Neat to see what a few weeks do to the road, lake and overnight temps. Have fun. BTW, in our experience, poor road conditions first became noticable hundreds of miles north of your current location. I hope this isn't a bad omen of things to come. When you hit the great white north, those polite Canucks are usually kind enough to put a few little orange flags right where a frost heave humps up. This is helpful, but it creates a few issues. First the flag is at the peak of the hump, so if you haven't dropped anchor and slowed to a walk, you are too late. Second, they mark MOST of the humps. If you fail to pay attention, you end up in the air thinking....... wait a minute, I didn't see a flag, LOL. Last, when you get to the border, the alaskan road folks seem to lose interest in marking anything smaller than an upcoming disaster. Have a great time!
ReplyDeleteI had a chance to drive the highway a couple years ago in February and appreciated the orange flags - some spots on the Icefields Parkway were very deserving of consideration for such decorations! I'm enjoying being ahead of the summer rush but still starting to play hop scotch with some rigs headed the same direction.
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