Quite a Drive: Banff to Jasper

Yesterday morning we left our campsite for a 180 mile drive to Jasper. For the entire drive we were in National Parks. After about 45 miles we left Trans Canada Highway One for Route 93, the Icefield Parkway. This is a two lane road through some of the most spectacular scenery around.

This is Bow Lake.

Almost all my photos are from the moving truck because our truck and trailer had no chance of parking at any of the viewpoints.

Still, the views we saw were fantastic.

We could see what seemed to be ice in the distance.

Even at the non- view pull outs…

the scenery was beautiful.

These were spectacular mountains.

We crossed…

and then followed the North Saskatchewan River upstream.

Here it’s a wide shallow river carrying melt from the Columbia Icefield, from which the parkway gets its name.

We continued through spectacular peaks…

catching glimpses of ice…

until we climbed a pass and left the North Saskatchewan River behind.

We saw more peaks…

and more ice.

There was no way we could park

at the Icefield Centre,

so we had to be content with a passing view.

It was all quite beautiful.

We came down from the pass to drive along the Athabasca River, the first river I’ve seen that flows into the Arctic Ocean.

Now we are at Wapiti Campground in Jasper. It burned two years ago so is stark, but still beautiful.

And the campground lies along the Athabasca River. Nice.