I Melt With You

We visited six Parks Canada National Parks in our week or so west of Calgary at the beginning of summer this year: Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, Jasper, Glacier and Mount Revelstoke. In one of those parks, we stood on a glacier, one of those slow moving masses of ice that did so much to carve out the Canadian Rockies and make them as spectacular as they are today. You might naturally assume that we visited a glacier in Glacier National Park. You'd be wrong. Time for some Jasper stories. Welcome to Canadian Rockies Park blog post number four. 

When we planned this trip to Canada earlier this year, we decided to stay in a town in British Columbia called Golden. Golden is situated effectively between Yoho National Park and Glacier National Park and it would enable us to get to each of the parks we hoped to spend time in without any sort of crazy long drives in any one day. For what it's worth, I'm OK driving six to seven hours a day on vacation as long as there are plenty of stops. Golden would allow seven hours on the road to be about the maximum time we'd spend in the car in any one day while also hitting all six parks.

If there was a compromise we'd have to make staying in Golden, it would be that we'd have to only make it part of the way into Jasper National Park. That seemed to be a good choice: the big attraction we picked to visit in Jasper (the glacier) was in the south end of the park close to Banff National Park and Jasper had been the victim of some massive wildfires last year so maybe what we presumed would be a burned out landscape would make it the best to do on a limited visit. 

Plus, five out of six ain't bad, right?

Then we got to Canada and started talking to people. 

I'm not generally one to second guess my own decisions, particularly when it comes to travel. But folks that we met in Canada made Jasper sound pretty special. It sounded wilder and more remote and filled with all the wildlife we were looking for that we didn't find (for the most part) in the other five parks. 

Regrets? I'm not sure I'm going all the way to that sort of thing just yet. The tales are one thing and if we had discovered what people seemed to promise what Jasper could be...then yes, there might be a bit of regret. A bit. I'm not there yet. And I won't get there certainly any time soon. We make our choices and we live with them. 

But if there's one place we didn't visit on this trip that would make me go back to the same area of our planet, it is Jasper National Park. And I'd probably do it a little later in the summer when the berries are on the bushes so that countless grizzly bears just line the sides of the road to Maligne Lake totally oblivious to tourists just pulled over to watch them eat. Or at least that's what I'm imagining based on the stories we were told. Those stories may be a bit tall.

Add Jasper to the "next time" list along with canoeing, Emerald Lake when it's not misty and Lake O'Hara after a successful lottery try. For sure, if we ever do find ourselves in Calgary headed west again, I am pretty confident in stating that we'll be headed to Jasper. And not just for the day.

Having said all that, we did visit Jasper National Park this year.

We spent most of our driving time west of Calgary on the Trans-Canada Highway, which for the most part is a two-lane (each way) divided highway cutting its way through the path that years earlier had been surveyed and used as the route for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Indeed, look to one side or the other of that road when you are driving it and it's easy to spot the railroad tracks running alongside today's road and sometimes it may be topped with a very long cargo train.

Making the trip to Jasper takes you off the Trans-Canada Highway. And when you make the turn towards Jasper, the road instantly looks a lot different. Now it's one lane each way and it's not divided. And then there's that sign that says there's no cell phone service for the next 150 kilometers or so. Visiting Jasper is different than Banff or Yoho or Kootenay.

We made it as far down (or up, considering we were heading north) that road as Athabasca Falls, which considering my whining earlier about not being able to make it far into Jasper from Golden is to within about 30 minutes of the town of Jasper and about 75 minutes from Maligne Lake along the road with packs of grizzlies (allegedly) on both side of the road just hanging out eating berries. But considering we'd already driven about 3-1/2 hours just to get to Athabasca Falls, we'd be adding at least another 2-1/2 hours to what was already a seven hour drive that day. 

Next time.

The road to Jasper. Technically still in Banff. Check out those mountains.

Before we got to our turnaround spot of Athabasca Falls, we stopped at our primary Jasper target: the glacier bearing the same name as the Falls. 

A visit to Athabasca Glacier is not a casual thing. It's not like pulling off the side of the road to see most of the other gorgeous scenery in these Parks Canada parks. You can't drive yourself up onto the ice, and walking over the thing without any sort of map showing all the massive crevasses 150 feet or more deep that will crush you to death when the ice moves is not a smart idea either. I assume nobody does the second thing today but we were told stories of people missing on the Glacier and rescue squads refusing to go looking because the odds of survival after falling into a glacier are basically nil.

To get on the Glacier, you need to book a tour. And across from the Glacier there's a visitor center that will allow you to do just that. We picked the Columbia Icefield Adventure, which involves a trip up onto the ice followed by a stop at a viewpoint over the valley featuring a cantilevered glass-floored walkway. Yeah...not particularly interested in that last part. It was all about the Glacier for us.

On our way up to Athabasca. The "dirt" is ash from wildfires.

Time for a news flash: we are not the first people to set foot on Athabasca Glacier. Not ever. Not this century. Not this year. Not even the day we visited, despite the fact that we were on the first tour time of the day. Somehow (and I'm guessing here on the number a bit...) there were about 100 people up there before us the day we visited. And I swear we booked the first tour.

The indigenous people in the area, the Stoney Nakoda, were likely regular visitors to the spot they called Cha-a tonga for centuries before the white man showed up in what is now Canada and grabbed their land. On this last subject (the land-grabbing one), the Canadians refer to the treaties signed between the Canadian government and the native populations by treaty number. Access to the Athabasca Glacier is covered under Treaty 8. And sure, there's some compensation and an understanding that less than maximum persecution of native peoples will take place after the treaty was signed, but it's still a land grab.

Once white people started visiting the area for fun, the first roads were laid into the area by and for mountaineers. The global depression of the 1930s saw the first government-sponsored road constructed past the Glacier but it was in the 1950s after World War II that people started jumping in cars for an up-close look at Athabasca. Time to start some tours and start making some money.

The first excursions to the Glacier in the '50s were on horseback. Thank God they don't do that any more. Times have for sure changed. You get up to the spot where you are allowed to stand on the ice today by taking a bus from a parking area up to a second parking / departure area where you get into a bus-sized all-terrain vehicle equipped with six five-foot (or so) tall tires. These monsters will navigate over the top of the Glacier, including going down (and then back up again) a 35 degree plus slope. Think that sounds like a gentle grade? Think again.

I can't imagine getting up the Glacier on horseback. Full disclosure, I've never been on a horse and really don't have it on my life list in any way but that's not why I can't imagine visiting a glacier while on a horse. It just sounds too slippery and dangerous. Between the horses and today's ATVs-on-steroids vehicles, they used what look like regular cars and I really can't imagine going up in those vehicles. There's one of those older vehicles (shown below) outside the Starbucks at the visitor center. It doesn't even look like it can be driven on snow, let alone down (and then back up again) a steep icy slope.

Don't pop one of those five feet high tires by the way. They apparently cost just shy of $7K CAD with about a $4K CAD install.

Transportation to the Glacier: Today (bottom) and the horses-to-today transition vehicle (top).

The glacier we stood on after we got out of our transportation is actually a finger (or what's known as a moraine) of the Athabasca Glacier. There was a time that it extended over the road that we drove up, past the visitor center and part way up the mountain behind the visitor center. Now it's a whole lot smaller. These things are disappearing. And fast. There's a lake at the bottom of the finger we visited that is pretty big; three years ago, it didn't exist. There was a lot of water rushing past and around us while we stood on and admired the disappearing giant. I get that it was summer (although barely) when we were there but the amount of melting was astonishing to me.

This disappearing is really why we decided to take this trip. Because pretty soon although maybe not in my lifetime, this Glacier might be gone. And that "maybe" in the previous sentence is not a sure thing. We were told 30 to 80 years is the estimated future lifespan of Athabasca. There's a chance I'll be here in 30 years and the glacier we stood on in early July won't. This thing has been around since the last Ice Age or at least 12,000 years but likely a lot more. But it won't be here at the end of this century in all likelihood. 

We were told (and I have not been able to verify this figure) that glaciers supply 75% of the planet's fresh water. Not that Athabasca's going to be the last one but what happens when they are gone? 

The Athabasca Glacier melting.

This is not our first time up close and personal with a glacier. We got pretty close to a couple  in Alaska in 2017 (including one incredibly intimate encounter on a very large cruise ship, if that statement is even credible) and we actually spent some time walking over the top of one and avoiding falling into somewhere we'd never return from in Iceland. 

Compared to those two experiences, this one could have been considered a bit of a bust. You get driven to a spot on the ice, get out of the vehicle and then spent 20-30 minutes wandering around within the very small roped-in area before heading back the other way. It was certainly not as spectacular as watching and hearing ice fall into the sea in Alaska and was nowhere near as interactive as actually trekking across a field of ice atop crampons right before the winter solstice in Iceland. 

But these experiences are fleeting and special and not long for this world and the landscape in the Canadian Rockies is just spectacular everywhere so to see it from a different perspective stood atop a slightly slushy glacier was still something to treasure. This is not something we are likely to repeat. We do still have all of the rest of Jasper that we omitted on this trip to explore and I'd love to think that one day we'll be driving past the Athabasca Glacier again. And I'm sure the next time we do, the size of this thing (or really the lack thereof) will send chills down my spine.

O Canada! And OF COURSE you exit through the gift shop.

There are two other memories of Jasper worth sharing.

First, Athabasca Falls is worth a stop. It's more of a rapids than a true falls, although admittedly not one I'd want to kayak or canoe through. Although, let's face it, I don't want to kayak or canoe through any rapids on any river anywhere in the world. For perspective, it's more on the Natural Bridge level than the Takakkaw Falls level (both Yoho National Park references). 

Athabasca Falls also appeared to be at about the southern end of last year's wildfires. When we rolled into the parking area, we passed a charred landscape with bare pine tree trunks standing straight up with zero foliage or even branches. Every time we pass through an area like this, I can't imagine how ferocious these fires are. I've been past too many of these sorts of scenes, including one in Northern California in 2018 where the fire was still raging maybe just a few miles off. Scary stuff. 

Second...that cantilevered, glass-floored walkway that they call the Skywalk? We went out there. I mean we had to. The bus doesn't go directly back to the visitor center. And while we were there we figured we'd take in the views and step onto the glass walkway backwards and take a picture. Just one step. Very courageous, right? 

So then I figured...how old am I and how scared I am that I can't walk out onto a glass-floored walkway that is clearly remaining structurally stable despite having been in place with people walking on it every day for years and years? So I walked it. The whole thing. Start to finish. I even stopped and took a picture of the view when I was standing on the walkway. 

Take that, fear of heights!!!!

However...

I did this under the following conditions. (1) I did not look down; I knew there was a seriously good chance that if I did, I would stop dead in place and be unable to move. (2) I held onto the handrail all the way along with the exception of one small spot where there was a family that was just messing around and clearly not looking to move. Come on, people. I'm trying to walk this thing as quickly as possible. And (3) when I took the below photograph, I pulled my iPhone up to my face rather than looking down (see number 1 above) to unlock the phone. 

I am pretty confident I looked like a scared little baby motoring over that glass floor looking obviously straight ahead unflinchingly. But I did it. And yes, that cantilever was bouncing noticeably. And yes, that was a bit unnerving.

But now I can say I've been there, done that. For the Skywalk anyway. Not Jasper. I feel we have some unfinished business. Next time.

The view from the Skywalk. No looking down.