We were sad to checkout and leave beautiful Lake Louise but also keen to drive the Icefields Parkway . It’s known as one of the most scenic drives in the world so we’d really been looking forward to it. I’d read a number of guides and had picked out several stops for us along the way .
Our first stop was at Bow Lake, another one of these lovely mountain lakes and with such still weather the reflections were as good here as they had been earlier at Moraine Lake
Next stop was Peyto Lake, this one is one of the premier overlooks along the parkway and very popular so I was glad we got a spot in the parking lot. The colour of the lake was incredible . This one was the brightest that we’d seen since Diablo Lake in North Cascades National park.
Further along we stopped at Waterfowl Lake and then just enjoyed the stunning views out the windscreen of the mountains.
In my research on the Red Chairs I’d learned there was a set high up on the Wilcox Parks trail. These ones have a great view over the Columbia Icefield but I’d read it was a steep climb so had thought we’d only do it “ if the weather was great” . Well the weather was superb so I had no excuse and up we went . It took us over an hour but it was definitely worth the effort ( I’m also glad to work off some of the food and drink we’ve been indulging in 😂 )
We stopped in at the Columbia Icefields Discovery Center to have a quick look a( and use the loo!) and to have our lunch. They do a snowmobile ride up into the glacier here but when planning the trip we had booked a 2 hour guided hike on Matanuska Glacier in Alaska instead. Unfortunately the weather scuppered our hike there but we still decided we’d not bother with the snowmobile ride here. You need to book ahead and specify a time ( to avoid a long wait if you just buy tickets on arrival) and we didn’t want to be pinned down to an arrival time . The place was heaving with people , it was packed, particularly the Starbucks 😂
Further along the road we stopped in at two waterfalls Sunwapta Falls and Athabasca Falls, both very pretty.
Finally we arrived in Jasper and checked into the Tekarra Lodge. It’s located just outside the town on the Athabasca river and most of the accomodation is in cabins . They were described as “rustic” on their website but the photos looked good ..well They were certainly very rustic and small but our little cabin was clean and had cooking facilities and most importantly they have a guest laundry , we were running out of clean undies so this was a very important advantage 😂
We ate at their restaurant which was surprisingly good , a had the “Chicken Dinner” , which changed every night depending on what the Chef fancies , tonight it was a really good Chicken Provençal .
The Icefields Parkway lived up to all the hype for us , tomorrow we take in the scenery of Jasper National Park.