We had a nice hearty breakfast, and then we were on the road by 8.30am, heading to the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park.

The first part of travel was clear and the mountains looked grand on the Bow River side, we happened to get seats on the right side of the tour bus for good photo shots and many of them. We did see far in the distance on one mountain some Bighorn Sheep.

As we ventured further into the park, we could see that it had been snowing the night before, because the peaks were sprinkled with snow, prior to this the mountains were bare, so we felt very lucky – it was picture perfect, snow capped mountains with green alpine trees below, a time when the professional photographers would be out taking photos too.

The Canadian Rockies were originally like the Barrier Reef on a continental shelf and is made of sedimentary rock, including shale, sandstone, limestone and quartzite.

Our first stop was at Bow Glacier where Peyto Lake is, the only tea house (Num-Ti-Jah Lodge) on the park highway 93, we could see snow on the roof top, I had the urge to knock the head off one of three snowman that were just built, he was very small and was melting with the sun shining on him, so didn't feel so bad doing it, when it snows a lot, there will be many snowmen I’m guessing everywhere.

Banff National Park is the oldest National Park in Canada, and it’s history has been shaped with conservation and development interests, first established in 1885 after hot springs were discovered, a small area was set aside for the hot springs, and later expanded to include Lake Louise and the Columbia Icefield that we were heading for. The Canadian Pacific Railway built the famous Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise, attracting wealthy tourists at first and to increase the number of rail passengers. Then there was the promotion of mountaineering activities that followed when roads were built also.   Thereafter with wildlife depletion threats, it was then protected to ensure the Rocky Mountains stays pristine and wild, there are strong rulings on who can live in the park, and what can be operated in the park today.

Closer to the Icefield we pass snow covered alpine trees, it’s magical, we then arrive at the Icefield Centre around 1pm, for a cafe lunch with views of the close glaciers and it snowing, yes snowflakes!

Geared up, for keeping warm in the snow and on the ice, 2pm we are on the Columbia Icefield, one of the largest masses of glacial ice outside the Arctic Circle, surrounded by some of the highest mountains in the Rockies – Athabasca, Columbia and Snow Dome.

We travel onto the icefield that is made up of three glaciers, via a Brewster Ice Explorer which is made specially to travel the icefield for a closer view of the mammoth attraction set within the Rockies most majestic scenery.

We found our photos could not capture what we saw, but it does give you some idea of the beauty in a small way.

In the Banff National Park at the Icefield water flows into the Columbia River and eventually Pacific Ocean along with rivers feeding into the Atlantic Ocean, we leave to travel into Jasper National Park, where the rivers feed into the Arctic Ocean.

Jasper town is about an hour and half away, where we overnight for two nights. Our hotel Sawridge Inn is run by the Nations, and dinner just now was a real treat, choices of the local food presented and served in 5 star fashion.   Dad really went with all the local ingredients, had three types of salmon for entree, Bison for main, and his dessert was Maple Toffee Sticky Pudding, with homemade ice cream.

Before we retire for the evening, we joined a presentation about the wildlife here in Jasper National Park, we’ve never been to such an interesting park conservationist presentation. Some of the ways the animals survive in the cold and snow is amazing and to hear how if we make one change to the way the animals survive it will kill off the animals very quickly.   On the highway, the parks have built two major over paths for the animals, and 70 odd underpasses, as different types of animals use the different styles of crossovers, for example the Grizzly uses the overpass and the Black Bear uses the underpass.

Some interesting facts:

How can you tell the difference between a Grizzly and a Black Bear – the Grizzly has a huge muscle on his back from digging and turning rocks.

A Grizzly eats in berry calories – 70 Big Macs a day before hibernation.

The claws of a Grizzly are the length of our fingers.

When a bear sleeps for 5 to 6 months, they do not have to go to the bathroom.  

The female has her cubs whilst she is asleep, when she wakes they are quite big with fur, they fend for themselves – suckling whilst she is asleep, when born, they are a size of a hamster.

A caribou is quite unique in the deer family, it is the only deer that the female and male grow antlers, and the Caribou has one antler that is in a shape of a C, and the other is like a big shovel bit like the moose antlers.   The female when she loses her antlers she eats them if has she is feeding her calves, for the calcium content.

The Elk grows it’s antlers to attract the females and the bigger the better, as they grow they are actually soft tissue/spongy under a felt like substance, when mating season arrives, he rubs his antlers so the velvet comes off and the underneath goes hard, they fall off every 12 months, they grow about an inch a day.