Columbia Ice Fields and Jasper

6/7/13

We were off rather early this morning up the Ice-fields Parkway about 70 miles to Columbia Ice-fields where we boarded a bus that took us up near the Athabasca glacier where we boarded an ice crawler that took us out onto the glacier.  It was cold but magnificent viewing.  This is the only glacier known to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans.  It is approximately 1,000 feet thick.

We continued up the Highway 93 toward Jasper this afternoon in moderate rain until arriving at the Whistler’s Campground.  High spruce forest punctuated with White Birch trees.  After dinner we were entertained by a hear of Elk moving through the campground right through our campsite.  We will remain in Jasper tomorrow to visit Lake Maligne and Jasper, Alberta.

RV Travel Report:

We left Trans Canada 1 this morning on Highway 93 at Lake Louise today.   Two lane road with good shoulders and turn-outs in most places.  Roadway was smooth until about 30 miles southeast of Columbia Ice-fields where we slowed a bit on some rough patches during a climb of about 2,000 feet.  After Columbia Ice-fields we were on a gradual downward slope all the way to Jasper with much better highway surface.  No fuel report today.