The Icefields Parkway is the roughly 150 mile stretch of Highway 93 that connects Jasper and Lake Louise. Cutting straight through the heart of the fabulous Canadian Rockies, it is justly regarded as one of the finest road trips in the world. I was lucky enough to bike it’s entire length thirty years ago, and it remains on of my most arresting memories. Rachael and I are way past due coming up here together.
We’re seeing it with the aid of our car this summer, so of course we can’t quite bike it end to end. Instead, we’re doing the next best thing - we’re biking it in chunks, as a series of round trip day rides of about fifty or sixty miles. In some ways this might be a better way of experiencing it - we’ll spread the visit out over a longer period and get to ride it in both directions.
Today we took the first bite - a stretch from just south of the National Park entrance to the summit south of Sunwapta Falls. We’ll continue the ride on the day after tomorrow starting at Sunwapta Falls when we rebase ourselves for two nights at the lodge at Saskachewan River Crossing. We started today’s ride in the middle of its length though, at Athabasca Falls. We biked south from there to Sunwapta Falls; then biked north to the other end of the loop, passing Athabasca Falls again; and then biked south to the falls and our car again. We did this because Athabasca Falls is a significant feature on the parkway, and we thought we might have a more peaceful visit seeing it early in the day.
I’m not going to say much about the Parkway itself, because so many others have written about it. I will note though that from just today’s experience it is a much better ride than I hoped for. I was a bit anxious about how the traffic or riding conditions were, but they’re really as good as you could hope for in such a popular destination: a broad, safe shoulder; a smooth, almost glassy highway; and significantly less motor vehicle traffic than I had expected. Drivers in general are taking their time and enjoying the spectacle in their own way.
Confined to the highway as we are, it’s not really a wilderness experience so much as a glorious immersion in some of the most fabulous scenery you can imagine. One breathtaking view after another all day long. Get used to a lot of mountain photos in the coming days. And a bit of wildlife, if we’re lucky.
Looking west toward Athabasca Pass from a viewpoint turnout. The mountains all morning had a mysterious presence, showing themselves for a while before disappearing again.
One of the great things about doing this over multiple days is that we can expect a variety of conditions. Today, it’s the wonderful mysterious aura of peaks emerging from the clouds. In a few days, we expect mostly sunny conditions to return.
Scott AndersonYou are? When are you going to be here and what’s your general plan? We’ll be in the region for the next six nights. It would be a hoot if we could hook up somewhere. Reply to this comment 6 years ago
It’s not easy to get a good shot, between the subject moving through and behind vegetation and the blocking actions of the crowd. This isn’t bad, but would have been better if I hadn’t suddenly lost my nerve. He’s not that far away here, and he reportedly charged two spectators already. Time to move back behind the cars.
