After the visit to the glacier and back, we were told that the ticket includes a ride to the skywalk and back. So we went in a larger bus to the skywalk bus stop. From this stop it is a half mile walk to the Skywalk.
San actually did a great job taking that picture given the crowd! I am a very proud photographer hubby..
This is an engineering marvel !! A U shaped piece of projecting steel and glass above the abyss. You are walking on glass and it is scary to walk on. The thing still shakes a bit in the heavy winds and that scared me a little more.
We saw a family of mountain sheep under the bridge. These sheep were amazing movers on near vertical surfaces! The baby was extremely cute!!
We read through the engineering details of the bridge, quickly walked through it (it was way too crowded) and got back on the next bus.
This is a must visit place. I think this will be even more beautiful when the mountains facing the skywalk have snow on them. Right now the river and the waterfalls are beautiful but not obviously visible.
A video of the Skywalk..
When you see a place like this.. you are proud to be an engineer. Heard a kid walk before me and say "this is just engineers showing off. They really didn't need to build something like this.. but they went and did it anyways!" I walked behind laughing.
What is more amazing is the engineering that is there in those sheeps soft padded feet that can grip any shape of rock as they go up on those vertical rock faces..
On the return to Banff, we stopped by a waterfall first and headed to stop by two lakes.
We had been in Alberta for less than a day and we had already spent the morning at some amazing places. Once we drove to the Columbia Icefield and the lodge for the employees who do the tours.. we were asked to wait for 15 minutes while our 20 year old bus driver and guide gave us the tickets to the glacier.
That picture is going in a frame.. I have not seen her happier in any other landscape recently. Being cooped up in the house or going on local hikes is not enough for this girl. So in a way I am happy we went on this trip!
We had to wait another 15 minutes to get on an another bus that took us further up. There we transferred to one of these monster trucks (think this is the largest tyres I have seen in my life) and another guide took us to the Glaciers edge.
Once there, we were allowed to walk as a group to the farthest safe point for folks wearing normal shoes. There was another group that went farther up, but with snow shoes. Given our schedules and the extra effort involved, we were happy with the tour we did.
We got to drink glacial melt water and walk a third of a mile or so into it and back.
Jasper National park, where the Athabasca glacier is located, had its own lakes and falls and sights on the Alberta top 10 list. However that will need a separate trip to Jasper and possibly accomodations close to Jasper than Banff. Someday we will visit Jasper is what we told ourselves on the return!
Just those pictures and walking on the Glacier was a highlight..
The tickets also included a bus ride to and from the Skywalk.. will post that later.
Once back after the skywalk, we had 30 minutes to grab something from the gift shop. There is a Starbucks but with a line a mile long. The eating place in the second floor had self serve hot cocoa, which ended up being the right choice. We got to sip a hot drink sitting on the patio with a view of the glacier(s).
A video of the glacier adventure!
We had three stops on the way back to Banff.. two of those three were 30 minute stops and one was a five minute stop to take photos of a falls (which in winter is called the Weeping wall.. where the falls are frozen on the wide mountain side.. in summer they were not that impressive).
On day 2 of the Banff trip, we were booked on a bus tour to see the Athabasca Glacier. Will write a separate post on the Glacier itself. This post is about the what we saw on the almost all day drive to the place.
We started at 8AM. We did not know they had a pickup point right outside our hotel. We could have got more sleep! Instead we parked downtown and paid dearly for it. The bus had 23 people plus the driver in it. By the end of the day we were all introduced to everyone and we all got to talk at the various stops. It was an international crowd, folks from BC Canada, Brazil, Australia, UK, Belgium and the two of us representing the US!
The driver was a local 20 year old kid, doing this as a summer job. Hindsight being 20/20, we realized at the glacier that we could have just driven to the Glacier ride point in our rental car in an hour and 15 minutes with stops on the way and saved a good 2 hours to do something else. While it is true that there is only one company that is allowed to ride the monster trucks on the Glacier (Columbia IceField), you don't have to go in a bus from Banff to that place!! You can directly go there and get tickets.
That said, we still enjoyed being passengers, interacting with strangers and stopping at all these points that the kid stopped the bus at, which we would not have otherwise seen. (he took us to vista points that were not the main parking lots.. which helped get great shots with no crowd in the background!). So from that point, it was a big plus. The only time we could have saved was for waiting for 23 people getting in and out of the bus at every stop instead of just the two of us. The kid did a great job of entertaining us during the drive!
There was a much bigger plus. He stopped when he saw a car slow down in front of us (I would not have) and we got to see a bear walk by us, up close and personal.. that was the highlight of the drive.
We also had lunch at a nice quiet picnic spot next to the river.
This drive on Ice field parkway is very scenic. We go all along the bow river all the way from Banff to Jasper National park. The drive in the car would have taken 2 1/2 hours, but we started at 8 and reached at 12:30 including all the photo stops.
The spots we could not stop at on the way up, we did on the way down.
First stop: The Lake Louise Village visitor center. This place had a bunch of places to get breakfast and coffee and it was the first rest stop after an hour plus of driving. Every place had a long line. We were lucky to get some breakfast in the Trailhead Cafe, where the line was at least moving! San had a Vegan Samosa which she rated highly!
We started all smiles.. a good sign. This was in the parking lot waiting for the bus. Did I mention we were early? This is also a "warmup selfie" !
Next stop: Herbert lake
We walked through spruce and aspen tree lined trails to the lake (this was our first of many such lake shore visits over the next 48 hours!)
the path ends and voila... the shades of green and blue and the transparent water hits you!
Next stop.. lunch at Coleman creek..
Next stop (more like slow down..) BEAR!! Unfortunately we could not open the windows in the bus.. this is the best I could get with the SLR from the other side of the bus through a tinted window.. it was an exciting thing for us to see this bear walk along the freeway!
at this point I would like to mention that we were expecting to see a lot of animals on the drive.. but the only other non human creature we saw during that day was this ground squirrel at the lunch stop near the river.
Last but one stop was a waterfalls across the mountains.. there was a family of four from Belgium. The couple and their two daughters exactly 3 years older than our two girls. Their girls helped us take a lot of photos. This was a good shot of us.. no falls, but I love this picture .. so it goes in the blog!
A video that captures all these stops including the "bear sighting".
If you want to do things fast, just go by yourself from Banff to Jasper. (then again, you might save an hour tops.. given you have to get a pass .. the bus already had a pass and was waved in). If you want to just sit back, relax and meet folks and go at a slow pace (if you have more than two days to cover the place), then take the bus tour from Banff. It is actually a decent experience. They also give you a packed lunch, water bottles etc. (Veggie option included, which again was rated highly by San).
We enjoyed the drive and the group of people we ended up with!
Now that I am able to sit at a laptop and write longer posts, going to get back to the routine! The next post on the actual Glacier walk tomorrow..
Thursday, July 21, 2022 at 10:29PM ;)
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