Banff National Park from a distance
Today is a brand new adventure. We are excited to be able to see glaciers - for the first time! The Icefields Parkway starts in Banff National Park. The entry fee to drive through the park is $16.60 - senior rate - and is good until the next day at 4:00 pm. This gives you plenty of time to see everything along the way with an overnight stay if you care to do that. The views are incre
dible - mountains everywhere with snow cover. And of course, there are animals to be seen also. In fact, the park service is so concerned with the wildlife they have built large animal overpasses for them to cross over the highway therefore eliminating so many accidents. There are 24 already built and they are building more. As you can see by the picture, they are quite attractive. The facade is fitting with the scenery and on the top, they have planted grasses, trees and shrubbery to make the area as natural as possible. This is one they are just building.
dible - mountains everywhere with snow cover. And of course, there are animals to be seen also. In fact, the park service is so concerned with the wildlife they have built large animal overpasses for them to cross over the highway therefore eliminating so many accidents. There are 24 already built and they are building more. As you can see by the picture, they are quite attractive. The facade is fitting with the scenery and on the top, they have planted grasses, trees and shrubbery to make the area as natural as possible. This is one they are just building.
Lake Louise is our first stop along the byway. This is a very popular destination resort area. The lake itself is magnificent. It was still partially frozen so we weren't able to see the water in all of it's glorious color but it was still possible to tell it was azure rather than dark and forbidding as some lakes are. The color comes from glacial run-off of rock flour - this occurs from the glacier grinding rocks as it moves. The flour causes the light rays to bounce off and cause prisms to reflect. That is how it is explained but this doesn't change the fact that the water looks turquoise. Beautiful however it happens.
There is a huge glacier at the end of Lake Louise - looks just like a lot of snow to us. Not what we expected a glacier to look like - maybe this is just because it is still "winter" here. While we were on the promenade looking at the lake, John spotted an avanlanche occurring up the mountainside. It wasn't very big, but it definitely made itself known by the noise it created. As we watched the mountainside, there were several other smaller avanlanches going on.
We spent the night at the Mosquito Creek Provincial Park parked alongside the creek in the parking lot. The park itself was not open for the season, the we were told we could stay there at no cost. While there we spotted Mountain Goats on the mountainside and several waterfalls caused from the snow melt.
Tomorrow we will finish the Icefields Parkway and continue heading north.
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