Trains and Grizzly Bears, A Canadian Roadtrip - Rocky Mountaineer Day 7

Sunday, September 8 - Lake Louise to Jasper

Today we are moving from Lake Louise to Jasper National Park via the scenic Banff Jasper Highway by bus or “motor coach” as they like to call it.  The buses we have traveled on so far have been very comfortable and relatively roomy.  There are also video screens every eight rows with a live view of what the driver is seeing out of the front of the bus.  That being said, we won’t be sorry to take our last bus ride on this trip.

We didn’t have to catch the bus until 9:15 so we were able to sleep in until 8:00.  We went down a little early and Val got herself some tea and banana bread for both of us for breakfast on the bus when we hit the road.  I went on to check in for the bus and found a bit of a chaotic scene as there were two buses full of people in a small space, but as usual, Rocky Mountaineer was very organized and it all got taken care of.  Val found me just as we were ready to board the bus and we were on our way.

We have driven the Banff Jasper Highway before and it is a beautiful drive, but we have driven straight through so today we’ll be able to see a little more as there are several stops planned.  It was an overcast day, but not raining as we started our journey.

We made a few stops at some scenic viewpoints along the way, but the major attraction was the Columbia Icefield where we took the Ice Explorer Tour and visited the Columbia Icefield Skywalk overlooking.  When we arrived at the icefield though, the first order of business was lunch.  We went into the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Center where we were served a buffet lunch and to be quite honest, it was terrible.  The food was not good, cold, not replenished and pretty much unappetizing.  It was the worst meal Val and I have been served on any of the tours and trips we have taken.  We didn’t talk to one person who enjoyed it.  One note though, I had a little piece of chocolate cake for dessert and it was pretty good, so all was not lost, I should have skipped all the food and just eaten dessert.  If we were to do it again, we would skip the buffet included in the tour and eaten at one of the other food venues and pay for it ourselves.

Pictures of our drive to the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Center (some of the pictures were taken from the bus).

The Athabasca Glacier that we'll be walking on today.  If you click on the picture you can see the parking area where you catch the Ice Explorer in the lower center right and see the spot where the Ice Explorer takes you on the glacier in upper center left.

After lunch, we boarded the bus and drove to the Glacier Skywalk that had great views down into the Sunwapta Valley, 100 feet below.  Here are a few pictures to show what we saw.

Our first view of the skywalk from the bus.

We walk along the canyon on our way to viewing platform.

The views were spectacular.

The skywalk was a semi-circle extended out over the canyon.

I spotted Val on the other side and got her picture.

Time to head back to the bus and on the Ice Explorer Tour.

From the Skywalk, it was a short drive to the Athabasca Glacier where we boarded an Ice Explorer for our trip up onto the glacier.  The Ice Explorer’s were specially built buses with huge tires and powerful, but low geared engines designed specifically for travel on ice.  It was quite interesting and very beautiful up on the glacier, but there were a lot of people as there were always five or six Ice Explorers coming and going.  It was also very cold, but not so cold we couldn’t stay out.  We were able to walk around and took many pictures as you can see below.

A view of the Athabasca Glacier as we arrived at the boarding area.

Here is one of the Ice Explorers.  They are huge with very large tires.

Boarding our Ice Explorer for the trip up to the glacier.

From the drive up, a look at where we will park.

A look back at the Ice Explorer following us.

 

Our time on the glacier was up and we headed back to the parking area to get back on our bus.

We boarded the Ice Explorer and were driven back to the bus and we continued our journey north toward Jasper.  We had one more stop to make and that was the Atahbasca Falls, but just as we arrived, our luck ran out and a torrential rain and hail storm started.  As you might expect, it was a unanimous vote on the bus to pass on the falls so we headed to our final destination in Jasper.

Tonight, our hotel was the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and we arrived there just after 6:00.  We were excited to learn we had been given a one bedroom suite, but upon entering the room, we had mixed feelings as we had a large living room with an adjoining bedroom, but the room was pretty badly in need of an update and lacked some amenities we had come to expect.  There was a large deck looking out over the lake, but with the rain falling, it wasn’t very inviting

We settled in and didn’t really feel like finding a place to eat so we ordered room service and had a nice dinner in our room.   

We did make reservations at the Orso Trattoria Italian Restaurant in the hotel for tomorrow night.  I spent the rest of the evening downloading and backing up our photos and catching up on the blog while Val spent the rest of the evening relaxing and reading.  Tomorrow we have a bus tour of some of the highlights of Jasper National Park.