Friday morning we had our last breakfast in Jasper and checked out of the beautiful Jasper Lodge headed for Lake Louise. We met Jeff from Sundog Tours for our tour. One of the nice things about booking through Canada Rail is that they contract these tours and transfers with smaller companies so that we were on smaller vans instead of huge tour busses. One of the drawbacks is that there can be miscommunication between them and the tour operators. When we went to board the bus for the tour they only had one person for us instead of 2. A couple of phone calls straightened it all out but it is a bit disconcerting in the moment.
Our first stop was the Athabasca Falls where we could get out and take pictures. It was a little bit overcast but still pretty.
Athabasca falls
Athabasca falls
Athabasca falls
We stopped at Sunwapta Falls resort to pick up a picnic lunch and then back on the bus. We didn’t see falls there but apparently there were some.
The main focus of our journey today was a stop at the Columbia Ice fields. We got there in time to have lunch overlooking the glacier where we would take a vehicle out onto. The haze and clouds that had been there in the morning had burned off and it turned into a beautiful day. We sat and ate and admired the mountains and glaciers that were all around us. Then we went to the basement of the building and watched a short educational film on the glacier. There was other information there as well about the Glacier and the people who first documented it.
We took a quick shuttle out to an area where we boarded Ice Buses that were as big as tour busses with huge tires. We drove down a big hill and onto the glacier with Abby as our driver. Most of the kids who work there are college age or just later and from Canada, UK or Australia. They live in staff housing at the Ice Fields all summer and they were very funny.
Aboard the Ice Bus looking down at the glacier
We were able to walk all around the glacier taking pictures, we also drank from some of the glacier runoff. It was really incredible to see how big the mountains and Glacier actually were. It’s hard to put into perspective just in pictures. Also the Glacier was as deep as the Empire State Building is tall.
Glaciers
Conrad Standing ont he Glacier
Glaciers
Shawn next to the Ice Bus
After we rode the Ice Busses we took a walk out on a steel and glass structure called the Sky Walk. The floor was glass and it went out over the edge of a cliff. Conrad is sometimes afraid of heights but he did the whole walk twice.
Columbia Icefields Skywalk
Columbia Icefields Skywalk
Conrad out on teh sky walk
We boarded the busses headed for Lake Louise. Along the way we saw a couple of Black Bear along the side of the Icefield Parkway and pulled over for pictures. They just ate along the side of the road while tons of cars stopped by to see then. Our guide Jeff kept yelling at the people who were out of their cars because they were too near to the bears.
Bears by the side of the road
People taking pictures of the bears at the side of the road and way too close to the bears
We also stopped at Peyto lake on the way to Lake Louise. Our taxi driver in Jasper had recommended stopping at Peyto and we thought that we would have to come back out on our own but the tour bus stopped there.
Peyto Lake
Eventually we arrived in Lake Louise where we which is absolutely beautiful. We were staying at the very swanky Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise which is right on Lake Louise. We had a quick dinner in the Alpine Social restaurant where Conrad was told that it was illegal in Alberta to cook a hamburger at any other temperature than well done. We rolled with it, but more on this when we get to Banff which is also part of Alberta. We walked around the grounds of the hotel and on the path around the lake for a bit to get some pictures. We’re glad that we did because by the time we had breakfast the next morning the whole lake was clouded in fog and we would have had no photos of this beautiful lake.
Our room at Lake Louise
Lake Louise
Fairmont Lodge Lake Louise
Lake Louise
Lake Louise