Continuing north along the Icefields Parkway in mid-August, we eventually came up the Sunwapta Pass into Jasper National Park in sight of the Athabasca Glacier pouring over from the massive unseen Columbia Icefield. We ate at the Glacier View Lodge and viewed the exhibits but passed on the bus tours to the glacier. Instead we stayed a couple of nights at the Wilcox Creek campground near the boundary between Jasper and Banff National Parks.
We had a great hike from the campsite up the Wilcox Pass Trail for more views of the Athabasca Glacier and surrounding mountains and we came across a herd of bighorn sheep. Later that day, we explored a bit more over the boundary into Banff NP and happened upon the very cool Panther Falls where the water is so thick with glacial silt (or rock flour) that it’s plastering all the rocks and trees white below the falls and along the creek. Another great hike was up to Parker Ridge (also technically in Banff National Park) and the stupendous view of the Saskatchewan Glacier Valley.
We then continued north stopping at Sunwapta Falls and the quite fantastic Athabasca Falls before reaching the town of Jasper. We could see the remnants of the wildfire that burned down a third of the town and some 96,000 surrounding acres last year. We had meals in Jasper but stayed in a campsite to the east of town in a little ways. We tried to visit the popular Maligne Canyon but the fire had also burned through that area and it was still closed to visitors due to hazards.
From Jasper we decided to continue on our way by traveling west through Prince George to get to Fish Creek near Stewart where there is a viewing platform to potentially see grizzly bears feasting on the salmon run at this time of year. We stopped for lunch and to see the visitor center exhibits (and a very interesting video about dealing with grizzlies) in Mount Robson Provisional Park.
Click through for the full gallery:
0 comments