We headed north on the Columbian Icefields Parkway. We had a 3:30 appointment with the Athabasca Glacier so we stopped along the way to enjoy the sites. Our first stop was Bow Lake, shown above. It was right off the road. The next stop was Peyto Lake. We had to hike up to the viewpoint which was mostly uphill but it was worth it.

Our next stop was the North Saskatchewan River, a Canadian Heritage River.

From there we arrived at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Center. We piled on a bus that took us out to an area near the glacier where we transferred onto an Ice Explorer bus. This special bus was developed to drive onto the glacier while causing the minimal amount of harm. The tires are massive. At one point we were going down almost vertically. Quite the ride. Walking on the glacier was much like walking on regular ice. Some people tasted the ice melt that ran along the marked off area for visitors. It was all pretty thrilling.

It was a short ride from there to the Skywalk. This is a glass-bottomed walkway on a cliff with views straight down into the valley. Not really my thing but I did get some shots.

We got back to Banff pretty late after another long day. Next up – Banff and the Bears.