Dr. G's photoblog: Sunwapta Falls

Banff National Park is Canada’s oldest national park, established in 1885. The park covers an area of 6641 square kilometer / 2564 square miles. To the North, the park is connected to Jasper National Park which is the largest National Park and covers an area of 10878 square kilometer / 4200 square mile. To preserve the ecosystem, there are hardly any restaurants of gas stations outside the towns of Banff or Lake Louise. When traveling along the 230km / 142mi long Icefield Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper, this is something to carefully prepare, since there is only one gas station and four restaurants on the 230km stretch.
The first step was to stock up on granola bars and water when I was in Calgary. Next I filled up the gas tank in Lake Louise, which would give me about 750 km of travelling. Along the Icefield Parkway, there are a few motels. I suspect that these locations are former gas stations, because there are still signs that say ‘next gas station e.g. 75km’. There is still one gas station at the crossing resort, half way the parkway, but with no competitors within 100+ kilometers you can guess what the price is. I didn’t took any changes.

Last night and the coming night I stayed at the Sunwapta Falls Lodge. After many sunrise and sunset shots and a forecast of clouds, I decided to sleep-in this morning. The first destination was the Athabasca Glacier from the Columbia Icefield.

Click on the photo for a larger size photo.

The Columbia Icefield is about 325 square kilometers in area and feeds eight major glaciers. One of them is the Athabasca Glacier. Since 1844, the glacier receded significantly. At the lower part of the photo above, the terminal moraines are visible. In 1844, the area where the parking lot is today was covered with ice. The deposit of stones and gravel at the bottom side of the photo is the 'terminal moraines'. Terminal moraines are large deposits marking where the leading edge of the glacier stopped moving forward.

The rock formations along the parkway are remarkable. It isn’t comparable to the Wave formation in Arizona, but then again I didn’t had to hike 3 mile in 100F to take this shot. This was just next to one of the many parking spots along the Icefield Parkway.

Half the photo opportunities are in front of you. When I looked in my rear view mirror I noticed this amazing scene, while the sun (and my polarizer) added a bit extra color because it was already late in the afternoon.