Athabasca Glacier

The wildlife in the top photo WASN'T on the glacier! But as for the rest, how breath-taking it all was. Where we are standing the glacier is almost as thick as the Effiel Tower is high. It was also a bit nippy at 12 degrees but the guide said the weather could not have been more favourable. The drive after this was more superlative on superlative. There were a dozen or more named glaciers along the parkway even more spectacular, but not as accessible. Again, Kath had arranged it all for us in advance.

By the way, at this stage we had just left the Banff Nat Pk and were now in the Jasper Nat Pk at the start of the Columbia Icefield which is the source from which all the glaciers in the area "flow". The icefield is permanent because it is above 3000 feet (the snowline differs, Wikipedia tells me, depending on latitude but here 2800 is about "it").

After this thrill it was on to Sunwaptu Falls for the night, driving along the Icefield Parkway with the Athabasca River to our left and mountains either side. No prizes for guessing the source of the Athabasca River. Fascinatingly, the water that flows down it finishes in the Atlantic. Other melting ice from the Columbia Icefield finishes in the Artic Ocean and other in the Pacific Ocean.

Have I said this already: Canada reminds me of NZ only writ-large. See ya, Den