The Icefields Parkway and the Athabasca Glacier



The Athabasca Glacier

The Icefields Parkway is scenic Highway 93 North that links Lake Louise in the south to the town of Jasper in the north.  It is about 140 miles in length and passes thru some of the best scenery in the world as it parallels the continental divide.  It is popular to bike the Icefields Parkway over several days, staying at campgrounds or hostels along the way. The highlight of the Icefields Parkway is the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier located at about the midpoint of the highway and near the boundary between Banff and Japser National Parks.  Several major glaciers eminate as lobes from the massive Columbia Icefield. The Icefields Visitor Center is hub of activity and base to explore the glacier.


A typical view on the Icefields Parkway



The Athabasca Glacier as viewed from the deck of the Icefields Visitor Center.
When the glacier was first reported in 1898, it extended to the location from which the picture was taken.

 

The view from the Sno-Coach as we headed out to the glacier.

Sno-Coaches arrive about every 5-10 minutes at the turn-around.

Drinking some glacial melt water.  Delicious! 

It takes one month every Spring to construct the glacier road and the turn-around.
It is graded 3X a day.  Two weeks after being abandoned in the fall, there is little trace of it.

The view from the turn-around.  The vast Columbia Icefield is just over the ridge.
The Athabasca is just one of many glaciers originating from it.

On the way back down the Icefields Parkway a few days later, we hiked thru the glacial outwash plain to the margin of the glacier.

The trail to the glacier.

Markers like this track the unrelenting retreat of the glacier. 
Climate change is obvious and ever-present factor in this landscape.

Glacial striations are made by rock debris in the glacier's bottom scraping
the underlying rock as it advances.

A melt water stream flows at the margin of the glacier. 

Travel by foot on the glacier is discouraged, but where else can you walk on a glacier?

 

The top of the lateral moraine represents the former top of the glacier.

Click here to return to the blog entry Overview of Banff and Jasper Trip
Click here to continue to the blog entry Jasper National Park.