National Geographic states that this the most beautiful highway in the world. About 230km long, it takes you through some pretty impressive scenery from Lake Louise to Jasper through the Canadian Rockies. At this time of year it was also spookily empty – at points we wondered if the world had ended and we were the only ones left on the planet.
Reached Lake Louise before dawn on an on a very chilly morning, surrounded by half the population of Japan taking photographs – lots of photographs! Before you get to the lake you see a huge hotel complex – still in development which is kind of off putting. The lake itself is a bit of a let down and not as interesting as the lesser hyped Moraine Lake which we quickly moved on to and spent a couple of hours walking around as the sun came over the mountain tops and slowly revealed the amazing turquoise colour of the water.
Warmed by an expensive coffee and pastry we moved on and stopped at Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, Mistaya Canyon and then just before it got dark we got to the Columbia Icefield. Luckily the tourist machine had shut down by the time we got there - we managed to get right up to the glacier as there as was no one around. This huge glacier is receding at a frightening pace; once up to and beyond the highway, you now have to drive about half a km to the car park and then walk for about 20 minutes to its base. Along the way signs tell you it reached here in 1972 here in 1982 etc Once at the base you can hear rivers running under the ice and the odd creak and groan from within!
Dusk came and we still had some travelling to do before we got to Patricia Lake in Jasper.
No comments:
Post a Comment