Road Trip to Jasper - Day 3

On Thursday morning, around 8:30am Ajo & I headed to Jasper National Park. The drive to Jasper was unexpectedly long. We stopped at Hinton for gas and lunch. It was past 1 PM when we got to the town of Jasper. Jasper felt much smaller than the town of Banff with less traffic, and people on the roads. We stopped by the visitor center to get some more detailed park information. Our goal was to do the Jasper tram and the Columbia Icefields. However, after chatting with the lady at the information desk, we came to the conclusion that we had time for only one and we decided to visit the Icefields.

 The drive to Columbia Icefields through the Icefields parkway was very scenic. We got to the Icefield center before 4PM and hence we were able to catch the 4PM tour. The tour took about 90 minutes and it was worth every minute. We were transported from the Icefields center in a regular sized bus to the inner parking area. The tour guide gave a brief history about the glaciers. Upon arrival at the inside parking area, we were picked up by a snow coach which was specially designed for ice and snowy hills with tires that cost 15,000 each. We traveled through the road carved out through the glaciers. It was an amazing ride. We had a 20 minute stop to step out on to the glacier and explore this ancient ice. When you stand on the glacier it feels no different than standing on top of hardened snow but to think that this ancient piece of ice is the size of Eiffel tower is just phenomenal. It was a little windy and cool but the skies were clear and blue. Definitely, Columbia Icefields is a  must-see attraction in the park and we consider ourselves blessed for the amazing opportunity.

After our expedition, since it was nearing 6PM, we headed back to Edmonton. On the way back, we saw a mountain goat, few big horn sheep, elks, and surprisingly enough 3 black bears and 1 grizzly bear with a baby. It was quite a day. We enjoyed our return trip tremendously. Other than some brief stops to capture some photos and grab dinner, we drove straight through to avoid getting back to Edmonton too late. We got back around midnight and crawled in to bed to catch some sleep.