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.
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| A snow-cat-bus. |
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| !!!! |
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| We are all leaning into the wind... COLD wind! (katabatic wind... look it up) |
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| Hope you can see the water flowing off the top. |
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| The "road" across the glacier to the walking-around place. |
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| There were lots of these markers showing where the glacier was in a particular year. This one marks the year 1843. |
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| Explaining the color of the water. |
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| Dwarf fireweed. |
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| The "toe" of the glacier. |
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| Lucky me, I had gloves in my pockets....! |
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| Standing on a glacier! |
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| These are bighorn sheep, females and youngsters. |
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| This little patch of trees is protected by huge glacial moraines on both sides. The are estimated at 700-800 years old. |
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| Glacial moraine. It was at least 1000 ft. tall. |
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| Solid rock polished smooth by flowing ice. |
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| Some of the ice is black, mixed with dirt & rocks. |
YES!!!!!
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