54: The most beautiful drive in the world!

25.05.2012 – 25.05.2012 semi-overcast 12 °C

Today we drove from Banff village up to Jasper along the Iceland’s Parkway, reputed to be the most beautiful drive in the world! I’d probably have to agree…. I’ve seen some pretty specky roads in my time and I would have to say it would be right up there, if not the best I’ve ever seen. The road winds up the continental divide from Banff to Jasper. The entire drive is within the borders of the two NPs (Banff and Jasper) so a NP park pass is required to do the drive.

First stop was at the spectacular Lake Louise. LL lives up to the hype! The chateau is perched on the banks of the lake and the entire lake is surrounded by huge alpine mountains. Unfortunately, the lake is frozen so I can only guess at how green the water must be, but even covered in ice it is SPECTACULAR. We wandered around the some of the lake to get different perspectives on the mountains and the chateau. To get ‘the photo’ of the lake and chateau you really need to walk all the way to the end of the lake, considering it was early in the morning (light conditions not great for great photos of the chateau) we decided not to walk all the way to the end of the lake but to actually go into the chateau for an early lunch. (Incidentally, the chateau at LL isn’t as visually appealing as the one in Banff… if you want a gorgeous castle like hotel check out Banff)

On our way out of the little village of LL we stopped to check out the ski resort (again).. The LL resort (according to the guide books.. we have two) is supposed to be better for skiing than Banff! It was too hard to tell it does have a gondola to get up the mountain.. not much on snow accom but the town of LL is really close by so probably not too big of an issue.

From LL the drive to Jasper is the Iceland’s Parkway. The road is so named because you pass at least a dozen glaciers and for a lot of the drive the surrounds are covered in snow and ice! The largest ice pack south of the Artic circle is found on this road, the Columbia Icefield. Its impossible to describe the road.. every vista is huge alpine mountains (most well over 10,000 ft) covered in snow and ice, a very visible tree line, swathes of pine forests, huge glaciers, glittering frozen lakes, flowing rivers.. Very hard to describe.. Every 15km or so there is a view point where you can check out the view and snap more photos.. I have no idea how many photos I’ve taken today but I know the battery on the camera needs a recharge!!

At about half way up the drive you leave Banff and enter Jasper NP and not far north you find the Columbia Icefield. You can take a guided drive up and onto the icefield to check it out close. We chose not to take the tour onto the field because once you get on all you do is wander around for 20mins and then come back down… Considering, I’ve done a two hour crampon walk on Fox Glacier in NZ it sounded like a big waste of money…. Not fun at all! Instead, we decided that we would walk up to the toe of the glacier tomorrow to get a better view.

Not long after leaving the glacier clad mountains we started to head downwards towards Jasper. The trees became more dense, the snow receded and a group of wild goats decided to come and say g’day! The mountain goats of Canada are really cute animals. They are quite small, very white and shaggy.. almost a shag pile on legs! They are probably the size of a large dog.. no where near as big as the mountain sheep. It was quite a nice interlude to see these cute four legged guys on our drive down the hill.

All in all, the drive up to Jasper lasted all day. We left Banff about 8am and arrived into Jasper after 6pm.. a very long day but one that I won’t forget anytime soon. In fact, the drive is so long that after awhile your mind almost goes numb from the beauty of the mountains…

 

Song of the Day– U2, Beautiful Day

3 thoughts on “54: The most beautiful drive in the world!

  1. Absolutely stunning just in the pics must be truly wonderful in real life! You could get a job writing for one of those travel mags maybe Lonely Planet? I s that the name?!

  2. Mountain Goats!!! Are you kidding me! Rocky mountain sheep are everywhere & easy to spot, but mountain goats are much more difficult to find. Always high in the mountains & we haven’t seen any in years. Good for you.
    It was lovely to meet you all & wish you continued happy travels.
    Jean & Rudy

  3. Those “view points” along spectactular drives are a cause of stress for me. I kind of want to get to my destination but I really want to stop and see why they put a view point in that location. Before you know it you have spent hours at various view points and only travelled 4km! totally worth it though. Can I have one of the mountain goats?

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