Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for icefields parkway
A Glacial Feast
By Linda Tancs
The largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, protects 4,200 square miles of glaciers, geothermal springs and lakes representing mostly untouched alpine wilderness. The park’s tiny hamlet of Jasper is connected to Lake Louise in nearby Banff National Park by the Icefields Parkway, a 140-mile-long stretch that parallels the Continental Divide. Considered one of the most scenic roads in the world, the parkway includes along its route the Athabasca Glacier (part of the Columbia Icefield), the most visited glacier on the North American continent. Its ice is in continuous motion, spilling from the icefield (a surviving remnant of the thick ice mass that once covered most of western Canada’s mountains) over three giant bedrock steps. The Discovery Centre (a visitor’s center opposite the icefield) is open seasonally between May and October.
An Amazing Ride in Canada
By Linda Tancs
Icefields Parkway in the Canadian Rockies is a gorgeous mountain highway between Banff and Jasper national parks. Aptly named, you will see ancient icefields, covering majestic peaks like Mount Chephren. Of course, you can simply enjoy the five-hour one-way ride, or stop and enjoy the hikes, glaciers or wildlife viewing including bears, moose and caribou. The road is open year round, but the service stations are closed from October to May from end to end. Don’t let that stop you. Try a short guided tour, like Lake Louise to Bow Summit, the highest point on the parkway.

