Ice Fields Parkway to Alaska

We drove from Banff to Jasper in the afternoon, just in time for some glow in the clouds.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

The scale is so massive that none of these pictures lived up to my expectations. You can still see the incredible twisted and folded geology in the mountains, but from a photo it is impossible to feel how expansive this landscape really is.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

The Ice Fields Parkway is about 260 km long, a three hour drive at the shortest. We were taking our time because the roads were packed with snow and we were only going to see the scenery once!

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

A common sight in the Canadian Rockies - tilted rock layers. 

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

Sheer rock slabs. I am amazed at where the trees manage to cling on!

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

The big bend in the road when climbing the pass up to the Colombia Glacier.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

Sunset in early December happens before 5pm.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

The Colombia Glacier spills out right next to the road at the highest point along the highway.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

After an overwhelming day of incredible scenery, I was glad the sun had set so I could drive the last hour in undistracted darkness. We arrived in Jasper with incredibly clear skies, which meant that we could expect colder weather overnight. We made hot water bottles for our sleeping bags to try and keep comfortable. By the next morning I felt fine but Dash was getting cold and restless. When we checked the car thermometer, it said 6 degrees! We quickly finished breakfast and headed to Maligne Canyon.

Maligne is a canyon that is narrow enough in places that you could leap it, but it would be a risky jump because the canyon can be as deep as 50 meters. 

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

The trail gives great access to views of tall waterfalls (and in winter, icicles) and numerous bridges let you look straight down into the canyon abyss.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

How long will that tree stay there? Probably only until next spring. Marks on the canyon sides from high water suggest that the stream is a raging torrent in summer.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

Farther downstream the canyon mellows out.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

Great colors in the frozen waterfalls. Numerous springs feed in to the stream from up above the canyon walls, building columns of ice in winter.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

I read that in late winter, you can hire a guide to take a tour of the canyon from below! It was too early to do that now, since the stream was open along most of its length.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

These circular ice chunks were funny! They must have been formed in the swirling water in this eddy.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

I never got over how rocky the mountains were.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

There is so much rock.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

Big chunks of rock.

 

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

Our destination was somewhere beyond Fort St. John. We drove through the cities of Grande Prairie and Dawson Creek at night, and they seemed awful. Plumes of stinky steam, piles of trucks and heavy machinery, huge warehouses, power plants, more bad smells, and more ugly buildings. To be fair it was dark and that was all we could see from our narrow strip of highway. It wouldn't have seemed so terrible if I was not tired and looking for a place to sleep. I think that it is a very industrial area, supported by lots of signs advertising these cities as "energetic", haha. 

That night we slogged on to finally come to rest at the Kickinghorse River. The sunrise reminded me of the colors of home, in wintertime. We were getting close!

We stopped at Stone Mountain Provincial Park to climb Summit Peak. The trail actually takes you along the arc of a mountain ridge, and Summit Peak is the last high point.We only had enough time to reach the first peak, which gives great views.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

We stayed at Liard Hot Springs to camp for the night. As per usual, the snow was falling thick and fast. We were a little nervous because a cold front was forecast to come through over the weekend, but it was still relatively warm and the snow made us hopeful that we might squeak by on our last night camping. 

The hot springs are magical in winter! Frost builds up on the nearby trees until they are totally encased, from top to bottom. The hot springs have been kept in a pretty natural state, and they are so hot that it's uncomfortable to be near the source. It's a half mile hike on boardwalk just to get to the springs. The pool has a gravel bottom, and the water exits the pool over a small wooden wall. On the other side is the "cool" pool and a stream continues into the forest. We swam down the stream and it got narrower and narrower until we were squeezing ourselves under logs. It was awesome to see the frosted forest around us partially lit with the blue light of our headlamps. 

Apparently Liard is also the local party spot in wintertime, when there are fewer tourists using the pool. Which is somewhat surprising because the closest "towns" are Muncho Lake and Toad River, and then it's hours from anywhere. When we left at 9pm, people were just starting to arrive in groups.  

In the middle of the night the wind picked up, and it wasn't long before it was howling. At 5am I couldn't sleep anymore because I was too cold, so we decided to pack up the tent and get in one more soak before leaving. The tent was drifted in from the blowing snow! We saw one car still in the parking lot when we walked to the springs, the car still running and someone passed out in the front seat. Hopefully they didn't run out of gas! We never saw the springs in the daylight, which I think made it more of a surreal place.

We stopped at an IGA in Watson Lake to stock up on sandwich fixings and candy bars. We had to prepare for a long day of driving to get back to Tok.

Photo credit: Dash Feierabend

The last stop we had to make before leaving Canada was finding a Tim Horton's to buy a donut. We found one in Whitehorse and it was delicious.

Thanks to the generosity of the change in multiple time zones, we arrived home in Tok at 9pm. We lucked out with the warm nighttime temperatures, without which we would not have been able to camp with our light-duty gear. Despite all the snow at night, we had pretty good daytime weather for driving and getting out to stretch our legs. And the car made it through this trial by fire. Success!