A wandering Canadian: Banff: Icefields Parkway en route to Jasper (Day 5)

Today we drove away from the crowds of Banff and headed north to Jasper along the famous Icefields Parkway. This drive reminded us both of our journeys through remote New Zealand - a road cut through mountain ranges, no internet for over 230km, waterfalls and glaciers everywhere you look. The drive takes 3.5 hours without stops, but there are an incredible amount of lookouts, hikes, and other points of interest along the way, and with a toddler who needs to play and stretch his legs and consume 723 snacks, the drive took us 8.5 hours. It was a long day.

Traveling with R is usually fairly easy. He loves to be outside and he loves to explore new places. The length of this trip, however, seems to be taking its toll on him, and some days are more challenging than we expected. Plans shift; we adjust to his needs in the moment, and sometimes that means staying longer at one place than planned, or skipping other places. The number of interesting places to stop along this drive lend themselves well to this, and many a view point was enjoyed by taking turns hopping out of the car for some photos and then swapping, while he napped or snacked or played (or cried) in the backseat.

The world is vast - so much bigger than we are attuned to in our everyday experience, work and daycare and the daily household chores. The concrete jungle of the city can definitely feel suffocating at times, and the wide open space of the world, forgotten. This drive gave us a taste of that infiniteness that is this world, child tantrums aside. Perhaps he too, in his own way, was having trouble processing it. Seeing so much that is unfamiliar, that is so big, that is outside what you have ever seen before, can be a lot to take in and work through, even for adults.

Nevertheless, there were many moments along today's route that all three of us enjoyed.

Raven

After leaving Canmore, we stopped to take our photo with the iconic Banff sign. We were going to head to Wild Flour bakery afterwards, but there was a lineup of 30 people, so we decided to just keep
driving.

Crowfoot Glacier

Crowfoot Glacier was one of the first stops. There was a pair of ravens in the parking lot calling to each other, and R was quite amused by them. They are quite large birds when you see them up close. Sadly it seems as though they've been fed by humans a lot, and we even witnessed a couple throw their apple core to one of them. Even R knows that he should tell wildlife "no food for you!" (yes, a la Seinfeld) when chipmunks come up to him and beg. It was a small but telling sign of the impact that our presence has had on the wildlife in this area.

A few minutes past the glacier is Bow Lake. There is a gravel road that you take left off the main parking lot for about 100m, and there is a nice day-use area back there with picnic tables right by the shore of the lake. This is where we stopped for lunch, and R loved that we were on a very rocky shore so he could scoop and throw rocks into the water to his heart's content.

The shores of Bow Lake

Traveling with a toddler has us making choices and thinking about locations in ways we never would have before. Bodies of water with available rocks or sticks for throwing are a high priority on this trip! Thankfully, the Rockies has no shortage.

After lunch, we set off to drive for nap time and still managed to get in a bunch of interesting stops along the way, taking turns hopping out of the car to explore for a few minutes and take photos.

There's so much beauty along the Icefields Parkway that it's hard to take it all in, especially in short bursts like this. Sometimes you just have to take it all in and process it later.

Waterfowl Lakes

Parks Canada has a great map that shows all of the interesting stopping points along the Icefields Parkway; if you click this link and scroll to the bottom you will see it. One of the stopping points we did during nap was at the Saskatchewan River Crossing, the confluence of the North Saskatchewan River, Howse River and Mistaya River. This location was where travelers and fur traders in the 19th century used to cross the Saskatchewan River. These days, it is the only point on the Icefields Parkway where you can get basic necessities for this otherwise completely remote highway. There is a gas station, restaurant and cafe, bathrooms, as well as accommodations.

Nearby, there is the Howse Pass viewpoint, which I highly recommend stopping for. The Ktunaxa First Nations used this mountain pass as a travel route to reach bison herds east of the Rockies. The view is incredible, and as I stood and look out at the incredibly vast mountain pass below me, for a few brief moments I felt the tendrils of time reach out from the past, showing me visions of indigenous peoples using this land for travel and hunting, deeply connected to the landscape itself. Apparently one can still hike this route today, but the trail is rapidly disappearing and is treacherous.

One thing that I have been thinking about more over the years is how all of our historic places in Canada have plaques and signs commemorating the history of settlers and colonizers. In New Zealand, almost every place we went to had signs that explained the Maori historic or spiritual importance of the location alongside the settler's history, and both were given equal prominence and respect. It would be really nice to see that here. "Canadian" history is relatively recent; there was history here for thousands of years before we got here, and even though so much of it is tragically lost, I hope that we start adding this information to all our signs and plaques, so we can gain a deeper and richer understanding of the history of the land we are sharing.

Howse Pass

There are plenty of waterfalls to see in the region, and we stopped at the Weeping Wall, which was sadly not as "weepy" as it usually is. The lack of snow this winter has contributed to less meltwater coming down the mountains, so water levels are unusually in many places, including the famous Moraine Lake back in Banff. Further down, though, Tangle Creek falls was roaring with water and was a very beautiful waterfall indeed, though it did involve parking across the street and then darting across the highway, which is a little disconcerting to do with a toddler.

Tangle Falls

Weeping Wall

The most impressive part of Icefields Parkway for me was the Big Bend hairpin turn that cuts straight through and up through the Rockies. Driving straight through mountain ranges is always an astounding experience, and this was no different. We were both reminded very much of driving through New Zealand, though this was less harrowing. The views along here are simply breathtaking. Don't be concerned if you miss some of the pull-over stops that are marked as off limits for those going northbound - there is a large one at the top of the hairpin that you can stop at easily and get out of your car for fantastic looks down below.

Big Bend lookout

Along the Icefields we also saw plenty of wildlife, pictured below, but our favourite was the Mountain Goats. There was an intriguing sign for a pullover called "Goats and Glaciers", and they meant it literally. You can pull over and go see a lookout to a glacier, and if you're lucky (as we were) also spot the Mountain Goats who frequent a salt lick in this location. There were so many by the side of the road, including many babies. It was so much fun to see them and R also enjoyed them a lot.

After all that traveling, we finally arrived in Jasper and checked into our new hotel for the next 4 nights, the Maligne Lodge. It features a full kitchen so we can cook most of our dinners, but tonight because we arrived so late, we made R a grilled cheese, got him to bed, and then ordered burgers from De'd Dog Bar & Grill. I got an Elk burger and it was quite delicious!

Jasper is a nice change of pace from Canmore/Banff area. There are less people here, and there's a "backpacker's" vibe here in the mountains, which is more our comfort zone. Looking forward to exploring more.