{"id":1882,"date":"2016-09-08T14:34:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T14:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old.cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2020-01-11T21:05:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T21:05:30","slug":"canadian-rockies-day-4-icefields-parkway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/canadian-rockies-day-4-icefields-parkway\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Rockies Day 4: Icefields Parkway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>July 30, 2016<\/p>\n<p>This morning we packed up and headed south out of Jasper National Park, making several stops along the way as drove the Icefields Parkway towards Banff. The weather was cloudy and rainy today, which was disappointing. But at least today wasn&#8217;t a hiking day.<\/p>\n<p>Our first stop was Leach Lake, which was calm and deserted on this cloudy morning.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/9\/8271\/28548932664_79c2174aa8_c.jpg\" alt=\"Leach Lake\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Athabasca Falls was thunderously impressive. What you can&#8217;t see in this photo are the hoards of people and the plethora of awful selfie sticks.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c8.staticflickr.com\/9\/8032\/29170268135_3dde3d369d_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c3.staticflickr.com\/8\/7519\/28882945970_db1f3431d9_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"531\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c4.staticflickr.com\/9\/8302\/28551353683_1dfddbe2a6_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We stopped at Sunwapta Falls, which was a tad less crowded.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c3.staticflickr.com\/9\/8009\/28882941930_53db703c70_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8826\/29136806036_7cb95b3df7_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"531\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We stopped at this neat roadside pullout called Bubbling Springs on the map, but it was totally unsigned from the road. There&#8217;s a picnic area and a little natural pool of quicksand. Super cool!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8589\/28883072500_ee0da83b1c_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tv1RR_I_qBk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We pulled over at the Mushroom Peak viewpoint along the Sunwapta River. It was a beautiful spot although in terms of photography the light was dreadful. This is Tangle Peak to the south:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8029\/29136956316_33b1059328_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tangle Falls is right alongside the road:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c3.staticflickr.com\/9\/8881\/28883070010_039ea26f08_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"531\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And of course we had to stop to see the Athabasca Glacier, the premier attraction along the Icefields Parkway. This glacier flows from the Columbia Icefield almost right down to the highway. Back in the day the toe of the glacier was indeed very close to the highway. But the glacier is retreating and melting. You can take a short hike very close to the edge of the glacier:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/9\/8221\/28883068840_3ca801922e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Athabasca Glacier\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8232\/29136945756_16b8b0c9a3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Athabasca Glacier\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8008\/28883065380_20399b19d4_c.jpg\" alt=\"Athabasca Glacier\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dark ominous clouds were gathering to the north and they looked to be headed our way.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c8.staticflickr.com\/9\/8548\/29170401135_80e0500aa8_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hail is coming\" width=\"800\" height=\"408\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So as soon as we were done checking out the glacier we retreated to the Columbia Icefield Centre across the highway where we bought an overpriced lunch and through some minor miracle managed to snag a little table by the window.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/9\/8528\/28883087560_ba0ac6dbf6_c.jpg\" alt=\"Icefield Center\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As we sat there eating and admiring the view, the storm arrived and it was a doozy. It was a hail storm like I&#8217;ve never experienced before. The hail was pouring off the roof and through the downspouts, piling up everywhere like snow. It was crazy!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c3.staticflickr.com\/9\/8541\/29232622850_57ba11cbfd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hail\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6pPHJC1Z_AA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The hail ended after about 10 minutes, but it was still raining and I had left my rain jacket in the car. Greg ran to the far end of the parking lot to get the car while I waited at the building entrance for him. While standing there, a guy from Hawaii who had just arrived asked if all the white stuff everywhere was hail or snow. Then a woman asked me if it was safe to drive with all the hail everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>We stopped at Mistaya Lake.\u00a0Unfortunately the weather and the light were both pretty terrible :<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c2.staticflickr.com\/9\/8125\/29193607305_15077eed94_c.jpg\" alt=\"Bow Lake\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our final stop before connecting up with Highway 1 was Hector Lake:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c6.staticflickr.com\/8\/7551\/29193606565_53d63f29e1_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hector Lake\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We checked into our hotel in Canmore, went out for dinner, then Played Mr. Jack at the hotel room before turning in for the night:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c7.staticflickr.com\/9\/8332\/29159890806_f08951f1e7_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Another pounding rain storm passed through around 10:30 that night. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2016\/09\/01\/canadian-rockies-day-3-sulphur-skyline\/\"><< Day 3: Sulphur Skyline<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2016\/09\/12\/canadian-rockies-day-5-bow-valley-provincial-park\/\">Day 5: Bow Valley Provincial Park >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 30, 2016 This morning we packed up and headed south out of Jasper National Park, making several stops along<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/canadian-rockies-day-4-icefields-parkway\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Canadian Rockies Day 4: Icefields Parkway<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[174,177,175,176],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3092,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}