Day 13 – Thursday 3rd September, 2015

WOW – what a day!

The Icefield's Parkway is known as one of the most scenic roads in the world – which has celebrated its 75^th Anniversary this year.

I had been told this road is a MUST DO – and yes, we are doing it on the OOAK tour, but I figured from everyone raving about it, we can do it now, on OOAK and on the way home, because you just don't know what kind of weather conditions you'll encounter.

So we got up early – it was still dark when we left, and we headed out of Banff and onto the Parkway. The scenery around Banff is already spectacular, but this road instantly takes you to a whole other level. OMG OMG OMG OMG – there are no words to describe it accurately – It just blows your mind with how majestic and scenic it is!

Poor Steve could hardly get the car out of first before I was yelling “STOP STOP STOP”!! lol Every corner taken was a brand new postcard moment!

We climbed higher and higher, and we had the most awesome weather. They were forecasting it to get wet and stormy later, but at this time of day, it was blue skies and big white fluffy clouds!

Where do I even start to recall this magnificent day? Well, our first really beautiful images came as we entered what we affectionately called “the winter wonderland”. It has snowed overnight and we went from green spruce to spruce lightly dusted in powder snow! Honestly, it was the most magical and prettiest place I have ever seen. The bright early morning sun, making the power snow sparkle. Just enough snow to make it look all white and pretty. This was on Bow Lake, with the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge on the road in. Even the view from the toilet block was mind blowing! lol

Then from there it was a short drive (and many stops) as we came to “Waterfowl Lake”. The lake is vast and blue with beautiful mountains behind. We drove to a turnout only a few hundred meters down the road – quite unassuming, and we walked through the forest and BAMB BABY – there it was – our “money shot” of the day. Smooth lake with beautiful reflections – the light was perfect for the blue sky. It didn't take long for the wind to whip up and we lost our reflections, but we stayed a while in awe of its beauty.

We stopped again to photograph a rocky stream that was right on the road. We spent some time there, using our filters and tripods. Got some nice images of that!

From there, it was many little stops until we came to a large “switchback” up a huge hill, and we saw “Bridal Falls” - beautiful as it was, we were still too far away from it. We could have hiked down there apparently, but we knew how steep the track was and we knew that what went down, must come up – so we decided against it….maybe next time? Lol I talked to a local who was “hiking it for fun”!! Crazy Kanooks!!!

We continued on as we wanted to get to the Columbia Glacier & Icefield. Yes, its a tourist mecca, but eh, you gotta do these things. So we paid CA$80 each and that bought our trip onto the Glacier as well as a walk out onto their “Sky walk”.

If you look hard at the photo below, you can just make out the huge Terra Buses up on the Glacier!!

The Glacier was great and we were really glad we did get to stand on a huge chunck of ice. The “Terra Buses” are amazing. There is only 24 of them in the world, and 23 of them are right there – the other one is in Antarctica. The tires alone cost $5,000ea x 6 =$30,000.

The place was full of people… remember the 21 million people in Beijing? No – they weren't all here, but there was 21 million other nationalities all here on the Glacier! Its amazing the people we have met from all over the world! Steve was doing the calculations, and each bus full of people was worth $2,500 a trip. They run every 15mins, and there are 23 of them all moving on and off that glacier. Thats A LOT of money!! I guess they do have to close for winter – poor them, having to make all their money now! lol

Our bus driver was Bri – and she's an Aussie from Brisbane! I think half of the Australian 20's population are working here in BC!! She's been here 4 years now and whilst she's still an Aussie, you can hear her Canadian accent come through!

We took some photos on the ice before the weather turned – and when the weather turns, it turns fast and HARD!! It was snowing!! YAY – I was happy – but I think I was the only one. It did cut our time on the glacier short as visibility was down to nothing. But it was ok – we had our fun and saw the ice and snow.

Look at me holding a bit chunk of glacier!  :)

Then we went out to the Skywalk. Yeah, was alright – didn't have to do it. It was another bus ride down the road and it overlooked a valley. The tourists loved it, but for us seasoned photographers, it was ok, but not awesome.

Having had a huge day, we stopped for lunch when we got back to the Icefields and then we started the drive back to Banff. The weather had turned and it was looking like it had set in.

Just before we got to the big mountain, on the way up I had spotted a rocky stream and waterfall – ok, it wasn't a waterfall, more like a cascade over some rocks, very small, but pretty. So we stopped there on the way down. We had about 5mins of no rain, so we made the most of it. It was near Nigel's Creek.

On the way back, down the big mountain, past Bridal Falls, there was a bridge and on the mountain side right there were a few Mountain Sheep! It was pouring rain and snow, but I didn't care – it was the first lot of big animals I've seen since getting here and I wasn't going to miss out. Steve opted to stay in the car! (who's the smart one here?). So I got wet and cold, but I also saw a waterfall right on the bridge too...so Sheep and a waterfall – YAY!!

I jumped back in the car and off we went again….this time more cars were stopping in the middle of the road and off to the side. We had no choice but to stop. I grabbed my camera and jumped out to follow others who were walking down the road.

You know what I thought don't you? BEARS – this HAS to be bears…. Surely? Everyone had stopped...literally in the middle of the road, and some off to the side...everyone was out of their cars almost running to see what was down the road – and I was there amongst them, camera in hand, setting it up for THE bear shot!

Yeah, well it wasn't bears. Unfortunately someone, well two cars had a very bad day and they had a head on collision. We were 6kms down the road from where it happened. We hate to think of how many KM's of cars there was after us, as it was late and BUSY on that road.

So, sitting there, twiddling our thumbs, people watching – people making the journey to see what all the fuss was about, and those people coming back some time later.

Finally after 3 hours – thats right 3 HOURS we finally got moving. We saw the cars – a Truck (SUV) and an RV on the tow trucks at “The Crossing”.

We finally made it back to Banff close to 9pm. We were dog-tired and hungry. So we dumped our gear back at the YWCA and went back into town and had pizza for dinner (Steve was VERY happy!)

We both slept like babies!!