This
was the early morning of the trip. The
alarm went off at 6 and we marched off to the Bear Paw bakery. Oh, what a find. John was in heaven. We ate breakfast and bought sandwiches for
lunch on our glacier trip.
We
headed out into the dawn, hoping to see animals, but no luck. The weather was a bit cloudy so Dottie sang
her “Blue Sky” song and by the time it was our turn on the glacier, the sun was
out! On the way we stopped at a falls. Wow!
There was a person sleeping on the ground with a can of bear spray in
their hand!!
Before
we knew it we had arrived at the Columbia Icefield Centre and were in line for
our glacier explorer trip. First a bus,
then one of 23 special vehicles that we're designed to go onto glaciers. There are only 23 of these ice explorer
vehicles in the world--22 at the Columbia icefield center, and 1 owned by the
US Government for use in Antarctica. These 30 ton vehicles were built in the
1950's at a cost of $1.2 million each for the gas and oil industry in Alberta
to search for these resources. This vehicle with 60+ passengers went up and
down a steep gravel road, into a 3-4 foot deep small manmade glacial creek to
wash gravel & dirt off the tires before it drove up on to the alternately
slushy and slick glacier. They were serious about tourists not walking beyond
the red tape area because of the crevices that are often hidden under a snow
bridge that collapses when walked on. There have been no successful rescues
over the years of people who have fallen into these deep narrow cracks in the
ice. Yikes! Each bus load of tourists is
only on the glacier for about 15 minutes.
We returned to the Centre and boarded a bus to go to the Skywalk-- a
glass floored semicircular platform and walkway that extends out over the
canyon alongside the Icefield Parkway. It's a sure fire test of a person's
comfort with heights. Some people could not look down thru the glass floor to
view the canyon n floor below. Some could not walk on the glass at all and had
to return to the steel floor walk that leads up to it. It is an architectural
feat that took 2 years to build and 8 years to get all the safety permits
necessary for it to become a tourist site.
We
returned to the Icefield center and had our brownbag lunch on their large sunny
deck which looks out onto the highway and the glacial field beyond it, Dome
mountain , to the right of the glacier
is called the triple continental
divide, and is a hydrological apex. It is the only mountain in the world whose
meltwater water flows from it into 3 different oceans. On the British Columbia side, the water flows
into the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean. on the Alberta side, the North
Saskatchewan river flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and the Athabasca River into
the Arctic Ocean. Just so amazing!
We
drove back toward Jasper, but veered about 45 minutes northeast of the city to
experience the Miette hot springs. On the way there, we stopped to get photos
of 2 small ram horn sheep by the side of the road, as they scrambled up onto a
nearby ledge to pose for us. How sweet it was!
We
carried on to the Miette Hot Springs road and were treated to fabulous views of
the mountains and yellow trees! Oh
my! After a half hour of winding along
we reached the warmest Hot Springs in the Rockies. John rented a suit for $1.90C. We all got
towels for $1C each and headed in. Oh so
wonderful! There were 3 pools of varying
temps from 110 degrees to 102 degrees to 83 degrees. These are the hottest
springs in the national parks. When we had all had enough, we dried off and
headed back for Jasper.
As
we got to the bluff where we saw the two sheep previously, we encountered a
whole herd of sheep!!! What fun we had
making images of them! When they decided
to run down the road we decided to leave.
And then Cheri spotted a golden eagle - flying!!! Oh my - let's shoot!
Finally we
continued our journey and saw some elk on the way into town.
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