Detailed review by magdadh
magdadh
Perth, United Kingdom93%
We return the car to Lake Louise, uneventfully after braving Rockies' roads - a doddle in comparison to Scottish single track roads, but that's probably because we are out of winter now - automatic gear boxes and alien signage systems.
Back to the public transport, we get on the Brewster coach for a ride along what is supposed to be one of the "most spectacular stretches of asphalt (I think they mean tarmac :-) in America", the Icefields Parkway.
And spectacular it is.
We have spent almost a week in the Rockies, having travelled from Calgary to Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, Golden and Rogers Pass. We were seriously impressed by the mountains, the lakes, the crags, the wilderness, the bears, the mountains again. But nothing so far prepared us for the staggering effect of these stunning 143 miles. Completed in 1940, it's an extremely popular scenic drive in the summer, with several thousand cars covering it every day. In the winter, it's a forbidding and difficult alpine road. In May, when we are traveling, the tarmac is clear but the mountains covered in snow and the road is not particularly crowded.
We considered hiring a car for this journey but decided against it, on the grounds of cost as well as having heads, eyes and hands free for looking and picture-taking. This proves a wise decision as it's still out of season for many of the more interesting stopping points where one might like to walk about and explore. Snow is everywhere and thus we are not losing much by going almost non-stop.
The road winds its way climbing steeply up and dramatically down through magnificent scenery. For a time, what seems like a wall of mountains, citadels of rock, castles of boulder, the more awe inspiring as it's covered in snow, rises to our left. Lakes appear and disappear, covered in ice and snow.
The bus is comfortable and less than half full, so we get plenty of room, though photo opportunities are limited. But maybe this is good, because it's better to just look and remember I already want to come back in the summer!
The bus doesn't stop often, but there is a substantial break at the Saskatchewan River Crossing, a high and cold service station where we huddle with coffee while the children demand, somewhat surrealy, ice-cream looking at the blazing white fire of the Athabasca Glacier, one of the toes of the Columbia Icefield itself, a magnificent and forbidding tongue of packed snow flowing into a lunar, boulder-strewn landscape of a mountain valley.
Jasper welcomes us with brisk cold, blazing sunshine and blue skies, first time really since we arrived in the Rockies. It's unbelievably beautiful.
Icefields Parkway10
Ratings
-
Accessibility
-
"Must See"-Factor
-
Budget Friendliness
