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ROF= Ring of Fire Odyssey
MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
Icefields Parkway 1
BNF = Banff, BC/ Alberta journey
ROF = Ring of Fire journey
British Columbia/ Alberta, Canada
Saturday August 23, 2014 BNF 8
Icefields Parkway 1
That's Columbia Icefields Parkway, Alberta, Canada
Today is the day. Been waiting some 40+ years for today. Wanted to see Banff/ Lake Louise... done. Now it's the real stuff for an explorers heart; The Columbia "Icefields Parkway".
Left Baker Creek about 9 and was escorted down to Lake louise because the Bow Valley Parkway was going to close all day for a bicycle race.
A stop at the visitors center and T-bird trying to line up lodging on the north end of the parkway-- Jasper, Alberta. She has been spooked that lodging in Jasper, Alberta is impossible... that there will be nothing available. ... and in the true fashion of deciding who you'll throw the pass to while you're still in the huddle... T-bird books The Crossing. Another entirely separate post will cover this.
Start out on ALCAN 1west for a couple miles.
Get on Hwy 93north Icefields Parkway.
A couple miles on 2 lane road... not as good of road... been a long time since resurfacing. Road surface is ok... but old.
Come to a Rangers roadway stop. $19.60 Canadian for a Icefields transit pass. Ok... I get it... it's a toll road. $20 bucks for a toll road; no big deal. It's a canadian National park & this is the revenue to maintain the Parkwy.
Here at Tracks of the StoneBear a RT - Road Trip- is touchstone... it's what I live for now... a good, sometimes great scenic drive... Icefields Parkway registers way up on the scale.
I know you're thinking... what's el cheapo griping about a $20 toll. It's not that. At the end of the day in Jasper I'm thinking... now a month later reflecting on that RT day...
I vision a distant time in the future when the Lord comes for me. And the Lord says, It's your time to come with me. Before you go, you've got $20 to spend... then you come with me to the promised land; whatever that great mystery will be.
At that time,... my $20 will be to drive the Columbia Icefields Parkway one more time... Then... i'll be ready to go. It's that powerfull!!! It's that good. I like the American Rockies better... they're higher... 10 to 14,000' elev. these are 6, 7, maybe 8,000'elev; but the Canadian Rockies are absolutely magnificent!!!
Head on out. We drive Icefields Parkway a couple miles and fish a couple of beautiful lakes... nada. No fish, no trout. We're amatures at this so no big deal. and head north.
Immediatly the towering rockies are on the left and right.
Beautiful meadows... sky is overcast grey. Mountain fog/ clouds among the mountain tops... you can still see the distinct rock strata layers.
Long stretches of 2 lane road, little, sparse traffic.
The mountains on either side have snow-pack and what's left of actual glaciers tucked into the mountain crevices of shadow. Mountain fog/ clouds lingering among the peaks. It's good!!!
Tall Canadian pines along the roadside. These lodgepole pines, Douglas fir trees are 70+'... at the base of the mountains they look like toothpicks.
Moutanins with erosion loeurs .. the erosion tailings at the base of the mountain have huge fans... maybe a 1/4 mile wide from erosion freezing from a millenia.
We come to a sideout and take pix. Some of the snow pack / glaciers run a half mile+.
The lakes below the rockies and glacier lakes... lakes dug out from glacier movement for the last 10,000 years... this is the Bow River... the same river that ran down through Lake Louise and Banff. ... that will go on to run through Calgary... This is an amazing geological phenomenon to see.
We do a sideout on some of these lakes... this is the Bow River that runs through this amazing valley that feeds these lakes.
T-bird throws out and trout fishes for a while.
This is also a great place to stop and eat a picnic samich ... the view is magnificent; I recommend it highly... it is good nourishment for a soul.
These few pix can't capture how beautiful these lakes below these Canadian rockies are... it is beyond description.
The wildflowers blooming during this summer season are viid.
We come to Nim-Ji-Tah lodge.
This is a historical crossroads of Western Canada.
We are in the outbacks now... the pioneers met at few crossroads.
This modern day hotel has been preserved from the crossroads pioneer days when the gold miner prospectors were headed up to Dawson in the Yukon to make their fortunes in the goldfields.
Lifelines back to civilization were important crossroads; this was one of them.
This place was a crossroad!!!
Towering peaks above... this was a landmark, outpost,... trading place...!!!
... and the lodge is still here.
Head on up north... Peyoto Lake... magnificent beautiful... too many tourists. Buses of Asian tourists... Get me out of here.
On up more to a fantastic lake to fish some
T-bird fishes some.... Nada trout. Great lake!!!! Magnificent view!!!
Come to the actual Columbia Icefields Glaciers. On the left/ west mountain chain you can see the glaicer about a mile away. Looks like a big river flowing down the mountain pass... just frozen. And very dirty... from all the dust, ash, ect... a whitish brown tint. NOT pure white snow pack.
& have been around snow pack many times and it's filthy on the surface. Dust, leaves, soot ash, ect... you can rake a couple inches of ice off the top and it's pure white. Looking at the mountains several miles away... beautiful white snow caps... it's an illusion. Like most things in life; when you get off the mountain top where the vally looks beautiful,... get down to the up close view... it's usually not as pretty as the picture.
There are so many tour busses here... too many touristsright now at peak of the day... we'll come back later when it's not as crowded.
on up a few more miles was the glass ledge you walk out on " to get the parkway experience" for a mere $25 dollars. Pass ... tourists?
On up there are pretty falls along the road.
More mountains on each side of the valley. More wooded forestland. Mountains are 5 to 7,000' elev. some rock face... not as much as early parkway. Not as much snow pack/ snow caps here. We;re headed north on up into the British Columbia wilderness.
Eventually we come to Jasper, Alberta. This is a phenomenal drive; what a RT - Road Trip. It takes a lot to get here. A very unique drive!
You never drink twice from the same stream.
Just because you wander doesn't mean you're lost.
Uncle Hargus: Last of the Independents
Have Bear,
Will Travel
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