Into the icefields

Following the three day sojourn in Banff concerning which I posted last time out, our small band of intrepid travellers mounted a different bus for the transfer to Jasper – this latter being the location of our rendezvous with the train that would transport us through the Rockies.

This bus was another of The Girl’s excellent finds. Rather than sprint the relatively short journey from Banff to Jasper this excursion would take a leisurely whole day to complete the trip, enabling us to see an additional range of unmissable sights en route.

One of the promised – and perhaps the most dramatic of these sights – featured a visit to the Icefields.

I have walked on a glacier before – in Alaska – but there we were whisked onto the ice in helicopters. Here we were actually driven up onto the ice in the most extraordinary all-terrain vehicles. The pictures must be seen:

This extraordinary glass bottomed structure – the Jasper Skywalk – enables one to walk on air high above the deeply carved canyon:

Additional stops before a late afternoon arrival in Jasper were Peyto Lake (which everyone agrees is shaped like a wolf’s head!) and the spectacular Athabasca Falls: