Canadian Rockies - Icefields Parkway

This is one of the most scenic highways in the world.  You travel from one fantastic vista to another.  As you pass through fir and spruce forests there are craggy peaks topped with glaciers, many huge waterfalls, and turquoise green glacial lakes.   

You pass the Columbia Icefield which is the largest nonpolar ice cap in the world.  It is the source of rivers flowing to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans.

Between Lake Louise and Banff there are seven wildlife crossings over the Trans Canada Highway.  We wondered if maps are posted in the forests so the animals can learn their locations and cross safely.  In our three visits to the area we have never seen an animal on any of them.

When the railroad builders first crossed Canada in 1885 they didn’t just bring in settlers.  They opened up Western Canada to tourism by creating lavish hotels in the wilderness and romanticizing the Rockies.  The first president of the Canadian Pacific Railroad was William Van Horne who said, “If we can’t export the scenery, we’ll import the tourists.”

Below are some of our favorite pictures taken while driving the Icefields Parkway

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