June 22 – Mistaya Canyon and Columbia Icefield

Since it was our last day here and we had ticked off all our our must do items, we did some driving. When we visited Jasper National Park at the end of our Alaska trip we had travelled down the Icefields Parkway as far as the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier . I am pretty sure we have driven the whole thing before but just to be sure we drove up from the bottom, back to check out the glacier.

But our first stop, partway up, was the short walk down to Mistaya Canyon.

It’s only 0.5 km from the parking lot but it is steep stony path. This is from us climbing back up  I hate how the pictures make it look flat.

There were signs saying that you should stay on the man made bridge over the canyon for your own safety but this was all you could see from there.

So of course everybody ignored that.

Including me.

I should have made a gif of this swirling spot.

Some photospheres show being there better. Photosphere1, Photsphere2.

Looking upstream.

Jennie came down and sat safely away from the edge.

I tried a long exposure to blur the water but I am not sure if I like it.

We walked up along the shore for a short while.

Lots of people climbing on the rocks.

Then back to the car. We did a quick stop at this viewpoint after we had climbed high above the highway below.

Arriving at the Athabasca Glacier we drove down to the parking lot closest to the toe. Then a short but steep and very rocky climb.

At the top of that hill there was still a little way to go.

A photosphere from the top of the hill.

This is as close as you could get, without a tour.

The photosphere.

The parking lot back by the highway, where you can get a tour, was packed with a constant stream of the huge buses driving along the moraine and onto the glacier.

You can also get walking tours.

Then the careful climb back down to the car.

From here it took 1.5 hours to get back to Lake Louise.

Tomorrow we are moving on to Waterton Lakes National Park down near the Alberta border with Montana and the US Glacier National Park.