We Visit a Glacier

Yesterday we had to leave Wapiti Campground in Jasper National Park. Check out was 11 AM and we had a three and a half to four hour trip to our next stop. Bud suggested we get up early, get the camper ready to hitch but leave it in the campground and drive the 62 miles back along the Icefields Parkway to see the glaciers. We don’t know that we’ll be back again so this may be our only chance. We left at 6:15 and drove with the brightening sky with our eyes strained for animals.

When we got to the Athabasca Falls we decided to make a stop there, too. I had been driving, so finally got this picture in the parking lot at 6:34 AM.

There was parking for a couple of hundred people, but only one other couple there as we viewed this roaring falls.

The falls fell in several steps far below us…

carving a narrow and twisted canyon.

When we drove on Bud took the wheel so I could get some photos of the dramatic morning landscape in between helping him watch for animals. (The only animals we saw were a couple of bunches of mule deer right near the campground.)

In places the low clouds touched the ground making visibility difficult.

I had a hard time maintaining my lookout…

as every corner…

brought a new vista…

that I wanted to capture.

We were now approaching the Icefield…

and began to see the edges of the glaciers.

At twenty to seven we were entering the now empty parking lot for the Toe of the Athabasca Glacier Trail.

Along the way we passed date markers that showed the extent of the glacier in that year. In the distance you can see the glacier now, though its toe is hidden by the moraine in front of it.

We were in the shade, but the sun was hitting the ice above us.

This is the valley that the glacier left, with Sunwapta Lake from its melt.

Those pink flowers…

are the very pretty river beauty willow herb. They grow around the globe in the northern latitudes.

From the lot it is a bit over a half mile hike to the Toe of the Athabasca Glacier Viewpoint. When we got high enough up the trail we could look back and see the huge Columbia Icefield Centre. In 1844 the glacier reached all the way across to there.

Here’s another date marker, but you still can’t see the actual toe of the glacier.

The most recent rubble left by the glacier still obscures it from the 2006 date marker.

Now you can see the edge of the glacier reflected in the pool of melt water.

I did some research and in 2012 the glacier came close to where I stood to take this picture and went about two thirds of the way up the dark grey gravel wall on its right edge.

Two young Canadian women were also there and kindly took our picture.

They also told us this machine was probably a remote device to test and map crevices. You can take a guided walk on the glacier, but even the guides need updated information as crevices can open overnight. The one woman had walked on the glacier as a kid, before they required you to go with a guide. Her dad often repeated the warning tale of a boy who fell into a 40 foot deep crevice and froze to death.

Looking from a distance it’s hard to realized the size, weight and power of the glacier, but the striations on these rocks were made when this glacier originally oozed down the valley.

On the way out I looked back, but the sun still hadn’t reached the surface of the glacier.

It was a good walk downhill to get back to the truck.

Driving back to the camper there was more light on the mountains…

and plenty of people headed up to fill the parking lots.

We had a beautiful…

hour long drive back.

By 10:45 we were hitched up, had emptied our holding tanks and were ready to head out. Goodbye Jasper. I’m glad we added that early morning trek to our day.