Banff to Jasper. My brother in law Kurt in one of his text messages let me know if I liked the Banff mountains...wait until I see the ones along the way to Jasper.....was he ever right. If the kids hear one more WOW out of me....I find the views breath taking....and that is the way it is described.
We branched off of the main Hwy onto the two lane Hwy to Jasper.
Road signs....bear warning...do not feed the bears....no kidding. Long Horn Sheep....caution... animals in the wild can be dangerous...do not leave your vehicles. Funny enough....people still get out of their vehicles...with the children to get photo's.
Approximately three hours into a spectacular drive the road starts taking us ....UP....up....up.... a mountain. Even ATONOFUN was feeling the elevation...switchback after switchback.....at times down to 40 km/h. I did not mind the elevation....but why not install a jersey barrier....you know....on the side where the mountain drops....we climb just over 3,000 meters. The mountain tops still out of reach....and once again spectacular.
Sign say's.....8 km to the Columbia Ice Fields. This is one of our planned stops.
We drop the truck and condo in the RV lot and walk up to the chalet.....after a quick lunch we hop inline and get on the first bus shuttle.....
The Columbia Ice Fields are described as 1 km wide at the narrowest spot (the end were we start)....5 miles long to the eye...however the Ice Fields reach many kilometers back which are hidden by the massive mountain ranges.
The point where we walk on the ice fields is 300 meters thick......although the Ice Fields move forward at approximately 1 meter per year forward the are melting at a consistent rate since being monitored.
We are warned of the dangers of walking off on our own...these are enough to convince us...stay within the cones placed for us.
We get great photo's.....here we are on this frozen slab of ice...Tyler in his customary shorts....and it starts snowing....the middle of July....and snow.
It's about an hour to Jasper....a beautiful drive.....the mountains are starting to change....the snow covered rock peaks are starting to become tree covered.....and instead of snow covered peaks...only one face is showing snow.
This was one of the most amazing days of sight seeing I have ever experienced.
Alberta is truly spectacular.
No comments:
Post a Comment