Saturday, September 4th, 2004

We awoke in the morning hoping for a clear day, but the weather was still damp and dreary. Our initial plans of taking the Jasper Tramway and going on a hike Friday afternoon, were pushed to today. Now, with clouds still around and spitting rain, we decided we'd have to cancel the tram trip and head south. We were hoping for things to clear so we could get some better views on the Icefields Parkway, but I wasn't optimistic.

	Leaving Jasper, we could see that the clouds were pretty high, but the peaks were still hidden.

The clouds didn't break, and in fact, once we reached the area of the parkway below the Columbia Icefield, pouring rain was coming down, pushed horizontally by a stiff wind. Below is a picture of the Athabasca Glacier (center of picture), one of many Glaciers that descend from the Columbia Icefield. Unfortunately, the main part of the icefield isn't visible in this picture (you would actually have to hike way up or fly to get a really good view) but the whole thing covers 325 square kilometers and is the largest area of ice south of Alaska. The Athabasca Glacier has covered much more of the valley at times in the past, actually covering the area where the visitor center sits today when it peaked around 1840 (end of the Little Ice Age). The rain and wind were so rough that I had to take this picture from inside the car, but we did get to go into the huge visitor center and explore all the great exhibits about glaciers.

	Heading further south along the parkway, we passed by the Lake Louise area again, this time stopping in to check out the famous Chateau Lake Louise. I had no idea it was so huge, since I usually see it in pictures from a distance, dwarfed by the gigantic mountains that surround it.

	FINALLY, as we reached Banff again, the clouds started to break and we got some views with blue sky. In the distance is Mount Rundle (9,673'), which looms right over town. It was always one of my favorite views during our 1999 ski trip.

	A closer look at the peak of Mount Rundle. The clouds seemed to be smashing into it from one side, while the other was much clearer. This would have been nice on video, but I didn't get a chance to take out the camcorder.

Next, we began our trip south to Fernie, where we planned to spend the night. Just by luck, our route took us through yet ANOTHER national park, Kootenay National Park in British Columbia (we'd just crossed over from Alberta to British Columbia). It was another fantastic road through huge mountains with glaciers, and fortunately now the clouds were breaking. I took the shot below as we stopped along the Vermilion River. I like this shot because it shows the color of the river in pretty good light, as well as all the slide paths on the surrounding mountains (the areas of lighter color on the mountains where the trees aren't growing are likely to be slide/avalanche paths).

	As we neared the exit at the southern end of the park, we stopped at the Kootenay Valley viewpoint. The image below gives you an idea of the shape of the valley, which is pretty broad compared to many we'd passed through.

	In the other direction, there were more mountain views. Soon after this, we left the park at the Radium Hot Springs area, which has a resort for swimming (in the hot springs I guess). I briefly contemplated checking things out, but the pool we saw from the road was packed wall to wall (at this point Labor Day weekend was starting, which is also celebrated in Canada).

After leaving the park, we traveled through a much drier landscape with more grassland, which was a lot like parts of Montana. We were in the vicinity of many ski resorts that I'd like to visit someday, such as Kicking Horse, Panorama, and Kimberley. We arrived in Fernie by heading a bit east back into the mountains, and after driving through the grasslands, we could quickly see why Fernie has such a microclimate for huge snowfalls in the winter. The Elk Valley, where Fernie sits, is right up against the west side of the Rockies, so when storms come from the west, they must just slam into this huge wall of mountains and dump their snow. For such low elevation (~3,300'), they also seem to trap a lot of cold air, another bonus for maximizing snowfall. Even though it was only Labor Day, it really felt like fall and the leaves on the deciduous trees were starting to change. We had intended on camping for the night, but E felt that Ty really needed a night indoors (and a bath), so we got a room at the Best Western Fernie Mountain Lodge. The great part was that ironically, unlike everywhere else we had been, this was Fernie's LOW season for hotel rates. All the areas around the parks were in their busy summer season, (we had checked on hotel prices in Jasper) but I guess Fernie must not get much traffic during the summer. That evening Ty got his much needed bath, and we went for a swim in the indoor pool.



On to the Next Day