It is often called the most scenic drive in the world and the Icefields Parkway – the 300-odd kilometre stretch between Banff and Jasper national parks – did not disappoint.
While the drive can be done in a touch over three hours, locals advise a full day is needed to enjoy all this wonderful journey offers.
Our first stop was at Lake Moraine, just north of Lake Louise and rivalling its more famous neighbour with several formidable peaks reflecting in Moraine’s still partly frozen waters.
Next stop was another lake, Pyeto, which sits at the feet of several mountains and is renowned for the bright blue colour of its glacier-fed water (as blue as the can of Tom’s “Mountain Lager”, one local boasted at the pub). The short walk from carpark to viewpoint was much welcome after yesterday’s 12km hike!
Beyond the lake the real heroes of the Parkway emerge – miles upon miles of rolling mountains towering over the road making it nearly impossible to keep your eyes on the road ahead.
Highlights include the awe-inspiring Bow Glacier, which must be in the top two or three picture backdrops in the Rockies; and the Columbia Icefields, though with the temperature dropping to 3 degrees and rain picking up on this elevated section, we opted not to jump out and take snaps of the latter.
A special mention must go to our hired Toyota Corolla sedan which handled everything the mountains threw at it and still returned 5 litres to the 100 – seeing Tom uncomfortably question his loyalty to large 6 cylinder Aussie juice-guzzlers (“maybe those Cameron boys with their girly euro-hatches are onto something”).
Stay tuned for more hiking, bear sighting and mountain lager drinking in Jasper.
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