Travels of Nannie & Bubba: Rockies

July 26, 2013 A visit to the Athabasca Falls.

We found time to see these falls today. We DO love visiting waterfalls! These were pretty dang nice, too! Water finds some mighty interesting ways through solid rocks....

The Sunwapta River tumbles over the edge.....

It even makes a nice rainbow.....

It boils down a very narrow rock canyon....

It comes tearing around a corner....

And then it looks like this!

And look who was gobbling berries on the side of the road!
(sorry it's blurry...)

July 26, 2013 Athabasca Glacier

Today was a Gold-Star kind of day. We did the Glacier Experience thing, walked on the Athabasca Glacier which flows out of the Columbia Icefield. Oh. My. Goodness! It was sensory overload, and these pictures just don't do it justice. But they give the idea. Learned a whole lot about glaciers and icefields. (An icefield is way up high in the mountains, sort of like a lake of snow/ice that never melts) (a glacier is a river of ice flowing down from the icefield) Those snow-cat bus things were awesome. The glacier is steadily melting (summertime) and there is lots of water running off it. This water is what turns the lakes and rivers that fantastic shade of aqua. It was cold and very windy. It was waaaay up high. It was awesome. So very glad we did it.

A snow-cat-bus.

!!!!

We are all leaning into the wind... COLD wind!
(katabatic wind... look it up)

Hope you can see the water flowing off the top.

The "road" across the glacier to the walking-around place.

There were lots of these markers showing where the glacier was in a particular year. This one marks the year 1843.

Explaining the color of the water.

Dwarf fireweed.

The "toe" of the glacier.

Lucky me, I had gloves in my pockets....!

Standing on a glacier!

These are bighorn sheep, females and youngsters.

This little patch of trees is protected by huge glacial moraines on both sides. The are estimated at 700-800 years old.

Glacial moraine. It was at least 1000 ft. tall.

Solid rock polished smooth by flowing ice.

Some of the ice is black, mixed with dirt & rocks.

July 25, 2013 Jasper, Sunwapta Falls, Tangle Falls

Today we drove up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, with many, many stops along the way. It's a long drive with spectacular sights every bit of the way. We spent a little time in Jasper, the northernmost extent of the National Park, and caught up with some internet and phone business. (our campground has NO service at all...) We shopped and walked and had lunch.

We stopped at the Sunwapta Falls for a "minute" which turned into at least an hour. Funny how time gets away from us like that.... These falls go down through a very narrow chute with very loud thunder, then there's a 90-degree turn to the left. Amazing.

We also stopped for a "minute" at the Tangle Falls on the side of the road.

Totem in Jasper.

Sunwapta Falls

One of many sights

We don't know what these are but they were blooms once, and now they are about to be "fuzzies". There were millions of these things everywhere.

A great huge bald very dark gray rock face.

Another wonderful view.

Athabasca Glacier, which we eventually walked upon.

The snow on top is WAAAY deep, the edge of the Columbia Icefield

Jasper

Sunwapta Falls

Yeah, right.....

Fireweed. Also seen everywhere.

Tangle Falls

Fuzzies everywhere.

Fuzzies, and Paintbrush.

July 24, 2013 David Thompson Campground, in the rocky mountain foothills....

Our drive west into the Canadian Rockies (from Rocky Mountain House) was awesome! As we rounded every curve, we oohed and aahed. Pretty soon we saw a long aqua-blue-green lake, the color of which was amazing. Eventually we arrived at our campground, named David Thompson Resort. David Thompson was an intrepid explorer who mapped this whole area a long time ago. Our campground has a viewpoint over the Abraham Lake, which is just breathtaking. Here's a few images from the campground....