Banff national park
Day 5
This morning was a 6am wake up so we could make the 2hr journey to Columbia ice fields where we were partaking in a glacier hike. We tried to fill the car up with petrol but it wasn't open, we waited a bit and then carried on saying we will get it later then realised 20mins into the journey there wasn't going to be a town for us to stop at so we had to turn back. This made us rush a bit when we wanted to go slow so we could spot the wildlife which we had heard were very present on the drive to jasper.

I was driving and kirsty was looking. Sure enough kirsty shouted 'bear' I was like what?? She said yeah there's a bear!! So I pulled over did a U Turn and drove back slowly and there it was at the side of the road munching on berries. A small black bear by itself and nobody around but us. I pulled up right next to it and it didn't even flinch, it wasn't bothered by us at all. It turned to look at us a few times (we were sensible and stayed in the car) but otherwise was quite happy just wandering and eating. We stayed to watch it as long as we could but we had to get off. We both just looked at each other with wide eyes and massive grins on our faces knowing that we had both just seen something so rare and amazing!!

We got to the ice field in perfect timing changed into our warm clothes, signed a waiver and off we went on a guided hike onto the anfbasica glacier. There was only nine in our group so it was a good size. First it was about a 15 minute walk to actually get to the ice. We stopped to put our crampons on (spikes that go on the bottom of your shoes) then walked across a small plank and hit the ice. It felt funny at first walking with these crampons on but they were a real help. The ice was a lot softer than I expected and there were small channels of running water coming from the top to bottom that looked like a really windy water slide. Our guide told us that the glacier is receding dramatically and that in 100yrs it will be gone. At the moment it is 7km long. We had lots of stops along the way to look at big holes, small waterfalls and things that had formed in the glacier. The deeper you got into the ice the bluer it was. He chipped away some ice and showed us how if you held it up to the light it looked like a crystal. We also filled our water bottles with some glacier water to drink. The hike was around 3hrs long, we weren't going right to the top as it was too far and you have to set off really early to do it and only experienced trekkers make it to the top which is where the ice fields are. I really enjoyed my first glacier experience and next time I would opt for going into the caves and things.

It was time to head even further towards Jasper town for our lunch/dinner. Firstly we walked around the town and then stopped at jasper brewery for burgers chicken bites. Very tasty food, sat outside in the sunshine.
The journey back was a total of 3hrs 40mins. All we did was listen to some tunes and search for more bears. We saw some mountain goats, they were cute. Then further down the road kirsty shouted bear again, I stopped as quickly as I could and let the line of traffic by then did another U turn. By the time we had got there it must have gone back into the woods or got scared off because we didn't see it. Shame on 'it' for getting our hopes up!
We made one more stop off at a cool waterfall by the side of the road. I climbed up part of the way to get a picture and we were on our way again...... Home.
What a brilliant day of first experiences.