Saturday 5th July Banff National Park - Lake Louise-Columbia Icefield- Jasper National Park

We left at 6.30am this morning heading to Lake Louise. We passed Castle mountain and then arrived at the Lake. It was a cloudy day but the Lake and its turquoise waters were a perfect natural mirror that reflected the mountains and glaciers. The hanging glaciers over Mount Victoria were spectacular and dominated our view. We walked through the Fairmont Chateau which is right on the Lake and has magnificent views. We continued our journey and stopped at Bow Lake. The turquoise waters were magnificent. Then onto Crowfoot Glacier, named for its three glacier toes that once formed a very visual representation of the black bird's foot, has retreated so much since early explorers discovered and named it that it has actually lost an entire digit. We stopped at Bow Summit which is the highest point on the Icefields Parkway to view Peyto Glacier and Lake - altitude 7000ft. The glacier is an outflow glacier from the Wapta Icefield which rests along the Continental Divide. The glacier snout is subject to high melt rates from season to season. We saw a ground mountain ground squirrel running around. Peyto Lake is a glacier fed lake and was named after Bill Peyto an early trail guide and trapper in the Banff Area. The lake is formed in a valley of the Waputik Range between Cladron Peak, Peyto Peak and Mount Jimmy Simpson. We continued over Bow Summit Pass and entered Jasper National Park. We descended into Mistaya Valley passing Snowbird Glacier and Mt Chephren 9843 ft. We crossed the Saskatchewan River and arrived at the Columbian Icefields. We saw Mt Athabasca. The Columbia Icefield is composed of eight glaciers and is 325sq miles. The ice mass is one of the largest south of the Arctic Circle. Saskatchewan Glacier is the longest glacier in the Columbia Icefield. We had a ice explorer tour here called the Columbian Icefield Glacier Experience. We drove up to a car park near the glacier and boarded our ice explorer. The ice explorer is a massive vehicle specially designed for glacial travel. We drove up the glacier and then stepped onto the 365 metre thick glacier taking in the stunning alpine and glacial vistas. The wind was freezing and the melting glacial water was icy cold.

We continued on and spotted some mountain goats then stopped at Tangle Creek Falls. We followed the Athabasca River until we reached the Athabasca Falls which is a class 5 waterfall. Athabasca Falls are picturesque and powerful and are known for their force due to the large quantity of water falling into the gorge. The river 'falls' over a layer of hard quartzite and through the softer limestone below carving the short gorge and a number of potholes.

Downstream from the falls we dropped off some of our tour group who wanted to White water raft down the Athabasca River to Jasper . As we entered Jasper we spotted some elk on the side of the road. We had an orientation tour of Jasper townsite upon arrival. We stayed at the Marmot lodge and Pete and I had dinner in the restaurant adjoined to our hotel.