Wednesday 7 August 2013

05-08-2013 Monday - Banff - Lake Louise - Glacier - Falls - Jasper

 
We joined up with the tour group at 8:30am for the coach ride to Jasper.






 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Banff - low cloud.  We were advised to wear warm clothing as we were going to the glacier but it wasn't too cold a start.














Still more low cloud.




   
 





Our first stop was Lake Louise. 









As you can see by the photo above it was quite busy so apart from this one person John got a great shot of Lake Louise.













Views along the way.









There were lots of different mountains and lakes to look at along the way - all pretty magnificent!













Peyto Lake.




 




There were lots of smaller glaciers too.






 
 
 
 








 












 










 




 

Picture of the view after the big bend.




Bridal Veil Falls
 
 
 


Columbia Icefields - location of the triple continental divide - water flows to Atlantic, Arctic & Pacific oceans.







When we arrived at the Columbia Ice Fields it was time for the 'group shot' - as you can see Steven is definitely the youngest and we are probably a close second.







 


The vehicles to transport us to the glacier surface.  There are only 23 of these vehicles and 22 of them here with the other 1 in the Arctic. This hill was an incline of 37 degrees!









The driver told us this was the warmest day they had had so far this summer on the glacier as it is unpredictable and can be quite cold.

On the Athabasca glacier.



Water run-off.
We were told if you drank the water you would be 10yrs younger - didn't seem to work though!


Steven on a patch of ice.  Ahhhh






 
 
 
 
The 6 wheel vehicles on the glacier. 











A goat we saw.



More falls.




Sort of face in the snow on the mountain.


It could be the long coach trip, the after-lunch affect, the motion sickness tablets or the motion of the coach but quite a lot of the coach were dozing when suddenly the woman sitting in the aisle next to me, Beth, yelled 'bear' that brought me to life just in time to catch a glimpse of a black bear on all fours ambling along - John & Steven missed seeing him.  We kept a look out the rest of the way but didn't see another one.





 






Athabasca Falls - quite a lot of water flowing through here.

 
 
















Chateau Jasper - our stop for the next two nights.















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