Of Spiral Tunnels and More Things Bow

We started our last day in Banff by making a wrong choice of roads (Trans Canadian Highway 1 instead of the Icefields Parkway) and going into Yoho National Park in British Columbia.  There we discovered a viewpoint devoted to the building of the Canadian Pacific's transcontinental line through the Rockies.  The line came from Calgary to Banff, then to Lake Louise, and then through Kicking Horse Pass into B.C.  The steep drop on the west side of the pass created challenges for the railroad.  Starting in 1885 until 1910, the line had an unsafe 4.5% grade, extreme since the Canadian standards even then set a 2.5% grade as the maximum safe one.

To get around the difficulty, the CPR engineers decided to adopt a Swiss idea - that of a spiral tunnel.  They tunneled two spirals into the face of the mountain, allowing for a safe grade.

We were at the viewpoint labeled "You are Here" and watched an eastbound freight train enter the lower tunnel at Point 1 and emerge at Point 2.

Freight Cars Entering the Lower Spiral

Freight Train Emerging from the Lower Spiral Tunnel

Come to think of it, it's remarkable to note that these spiral tunnels have been in use for 100 years.

We got ourselves pointed in the right direction, went back to the Icefields Parkway (Route 93, and turned north to Bow Lake.  The Bow River has its origin with the Bow Glacier, maybe 25 miles north of Lake Louise,  The melt from the glacier tumbles down Bow Glacier Falls and out across a braided river (delta) into Bow Lake, which in turn drains into the Bow River.  (Just to the north of the lake is Bow Summit, which divides the Bow River watershed from those that flow toward the north.)

Bow Lake with Bow Glacier in the Background

We had a snack at a funky lodge on the lake.  The lodge intrigued me as the only one we'd been in that seemed to be part of the land, built to fit in the relative isolation of its setting.

Then we went out the trail toward Bow Glacier Falls, a relatively easy trail with its elevation gain concentrated on the last few hundred meters.

From Falls to River

Along the Bow Valley Parkway and Banff

The road between Lake Louise and Banff is a relatively new superhighway.  But to Canada's credit, they have preserved the old road - a very civilized two lane road - as a parkway that follows the Bow River, with viewpoints and informative signage.

The Bow Valley

We made our way into Banff, stopping for a picnic along a babbling stream (all the streams babble since the water is flowing over very rocky streambeds).  We explored the village a bit - it was crowded and seemed aggressively touristy, not a real town, but one, like Jackson, Wyoming, invented to make money off of scenery.  We couldn't help noting the different, very comfortable feeling we had in Jasper, which was a real town long before the tourists came.

We did find the natural history museum in Banff a very interesting place.

The building was built more than 100 years ago to house a collection of specimens captured and stuffed by the naturalists of the day.  Since there was no electricity in Banff, the architecture emphasized bringing natural light into the display areas.  The museum presents the collection as it might have been seen in 1914.  The taxidermists work is equisite and demonstrates how advanced the naturalists were in their identification and classification.

Our next stop was the very popular Bow Falls, just outside Banff.

Bow Falls in Banff

I imagine there are many "falls" in the Bow River, but these are particularly nice.

We finished our exploration of the southern part of Banff National Park with a drive on the Lake Minnewanka Loop, drive from Banff of perhaps 20 KM to the end of the lake.  It's a pretty drive and a large, pretty lake.  The stars of this particular show, however, were a nonchalant herd of mountain goats that stopped traffic and blocked the road for several minutes.

King of the Road

The Tram and the Lake Agnes Trail

The wind must have changed since the air was much clearer Wednesday morning.  We went to the ski resort that lies on the other side of the Bow River Valley opposite Lake Louise.  The lift took us 3000' up in the fresh air, over bear domains - we didn't see any, but others who had gone up earlier did.  The views are great, of course.

Lake Louise from Skilift

There is an excellent visitors center at the top and some hiking trails.  The bears were active along the trails, so they unfortunately were closed.  We took the lift back down, had a good lunch, and went across the valley back to Lake Louise.

One of the things Canadian Pacific Railroad did when it was trying to attract tourists 100 years ago - oh, how attitudes toward passenger trains have changed, the CPR only carries freight now - was to build tea houses at the end of trails from Banff and Lake Louise.  We decided to hike to the tea house at Lake Agnes.  Little did we know.  Always read the fine print.  4.2 kilometers seemed innocent enough, as were the first 800 level meters.  From there on, though, the trail went up, and up, and more up - sometimes steep, sometimes steeper, only occasionally moderate - but always up.  We did our slow but steady thing and finally arrived at the teahouse, huffing and puffing - we count that as an achievement that ranks with Inspiration Point in the Tetons and the summit of Whistlers Mountain in Jasper.

Lake Agnes

  And yes, we did have refreshments at the Tea House.

Lake Agnes Tea House

On the way down - blessedly all down - we had several good views of Lake Louise.

Looking down on Lake Louise from the Lake Agnes Trail

Lake Louise, Day 1

On Tuesday, the 17th, we left the lodge we'd stayed in to go find our campsite for the next four nights - with some anticipation, since the lodge was no prize, affording only a good shower, but a lousy night's sleep.

Our campground was bear protected by an electric fence.  In spite of strange feelings about that, we were assigned a nice campsite that served us well.

There was a grand view of a mountain-top glacier through the treees from our picnic table.

After setting up the tent and a picnic lunch, we set off on a smokey afternoon, exploring first Lake Louise, with its famous Chateau at the end of the lake looking up-lake to the glacier beyond - a fabulous view that would have been even more fabulous 100 years ago before glacial warming took its toll.  The smoke from the fires in British Columbia was pretty thick and we could only guess at the Columbia Glacier at the end of the lake.

We did a short hike along the lakeshore and found some less smoke-obscured views.

Canoe on Lake Louise - Note Glacier at Upper Left Corner

Glacier in the Upper Left Corner of the Photo Above

Then we took the 10 mile drive to Moraine Lake, another lake that lies in a valley between snowclad mountains.  Still smokey, but less so than at Lake Louise.

Lake Moraine, as its name suggests, fills a valley whose sides are moraines formed by glaciers that, when they melted, dropped all manner of rocks and debris in huge piles.

Goodbye Jasper, Hello Icefields

On the 16th, we broke camp, had breakfast in Jasper, did some errands, and headed south on Route 93, the Icefields Parkway.

Along the way, we stopped at Athabasca Falls to finish our viewing from Friday that had been washed out by the rain.  We learn so much geology every time we step out of the Prius - we'll have to take a course so we can have context for all the bits and pieces we've learned.  We came back to the Falls because we wanted to look more closely at the channel below them. The channel is narrow and cut through closely packed sedimentary layers.  The rock must be pretty hard, because over the years a large volume of water has cut a very well defined channel that shows few signs of erosive rounding or widening.

Channel Below the Falls

One feature, called a pothole, caught our eye, a round tub-like cut in the side of the channelformed by turbulent water.

Pothole

The volume of water that goes through the channel becomes the wide Athabasca River only 200 yards beyond the Falls.  The river originates in the glaciers a few tens of miles to the south, resulting in a heavy load of suspended silt.  It is this silt that gives the rivers and lakes in the Canadian Rockies their shades of turquoise.

Athabasca River Just Below Athabasca Falls

The Athabasca River has its headwaters in the glaciers  It travels through Alberta before draining into the Peace-Athabasca Delta and Lake Athabasca on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and thence to the Arctic Ocean via Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River.

Then it was down the road for 50 miles or so to the Athabasca Glacier.  This is the glacier that flows down from the Columbia Icefields to about a mile from the highway.  The Icefields, above and behind the glacier, are about 125 square miles of glacial ice as much as 1100 feet thick.  170 years ago, the glacier stretched down to the parking lot, but in receding has lost about 60% of its 1840s volume.

Athabasca Glacier Seen From the Icefields Visitors Center

Looking across the Athabasca Glacier toward the Columbia Icefields

We went about two-thirds of the way up the glacier on wonderful big buses, with 30 minutes actually on the glacier - much closer views of the steps in the glacier (where the glacier flows over especially hard rock) and the lip of the Columbia Icefields.

 Just to show we both were there

An unexpected delight were the views from our glacial bus stop of the Andromeda Glacier. That glacier has carved a huge cirque into its mountain.

Andromeda Glacier

One should spend as much time in the visitors center as on the tour in order to comprehend the magnitude of the Athabasca Glacier and the Columbia Icefields that feed it.

Mt. Athabasca from the Visitors Center

Finally, we left the Icefields and drove to Lake Louise, coming through thicker and thicker haze.  We are told that there are very bad forest fires in central British Columbia and the smoke has drifted through the passes.  The fires are a long way from containment, and we wonder how much of the mountains in Banff National Park we'll be able to see.

A Last Day at Jasper

Sunday morning we had a lazy breakfast (there's not much action in Wapiti Campground until 9:00 or later) and then went into Jasper for the 10:30 service at the Anglican Church.  Good people, a congregation smaller than Shepherd by the Sea's, with a Mexican priest coming as Vicar.  It was nice to see people whom we'd met the evening before.

In the afternoon, which was hot, and more humid than we were used to, we did a relatively short hike - Whistlers took a lot out of us - up the Maligne River Canyon, just above Jasper.  It's a lovely hike, much of it in the trees.  Lots of falls and rapids. 

And some places where underground streams (from Lake Medicine?) emptied into the river.

It was spitting rain at the end of the hike, but we decided to revisit Pyramid Lake, on the other side of Jasper.  The rain had stopped so we did some exploring.  There's a bridge to an island 100' or so from shore.  The island is a community park, apparently a favorite for romance.  Walking out, we encountered a wedding party - we surmised that the wedding had happened probably at the the lodge down the road, that the party came to the island for pictures, and that they were returning to the lodge for dinner.  As we walked around the island, we found peaceful views in abundance.

Pyramid Lake Reflections

And then back to Jasper, supper at L&W Restaurant, our favorite, a walk to the other end of town for an ice cream cone, and then back to Wapiti Campground to prepare for our move to Lake Louise.

SUN! and Whistlers

The weather changed dramatically overnight.  Saturday was clear and sunny and wonderful.  We had breakfast and immediately went to see the top of the world.

Jasper is surrounded by mountains.  One of those is Whistlers, named for the sounds made by the resident marmots.  Whistlers sits about 4000' above Jasper.  One can climb to the summit - for 4-6 hours (multiply by two for us old fudds) on a developed trail.  Or, more practically, one can go up most of the way on a tram and hike the remaining 700' of elevation.

Looking down to the Tram (left), the Trail to the Summit (center), and Jasper (far right)

For the old fudds, the hike of a mile or so to the summit is a challenge, but well worth it.  Views in all direction, views not accessible down below.  The valley to the northeast leading to Hinton and Edmonton, the Yellowhead Valley leading west into British Columbia, the Athabasca Valley leading south.  Edith in regal dress.

Looking South to Mt. Edith Cavell

Mt. Robson is a snow-covered pyramid glistening in the distance.  Mt. Robson is 12,972', and although the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, not the highest mountain in Canada, that honor belonging to mountains in the Coast Range.

Mt. Robson

Snow-capped mountain ranges behind the close-up ranges. The mountains of Jasper and Banff are three dimensional - not a single line of mountains like the Tetons, but an area filled with mountain ranges beyond mountain ranges beyond mountain ranges.

Joan on Top of Whistlers

Joan befriended Emma, a nine year-old who had visions of dying, or worse, before she got to the summit.  Of course, Emma got to the summit first.

Joan and Emma

We spent most of the day on top of Whistlers, drinking in God's abundance.  We found we could see south into the Athabasca Valley.

Athabasca Valley with the River and Route 93

We also found that we could see Wapiti Campground and almost see our campsite, even if the orange tent fly didn't show up.

Wapiti Campground between the Highway and the River - our Campsite is Right of the Clearing for RVs

We had a nibble at the Tram Station, went down on the Tram, and drove into Jasper, where we found that the Rocky Mountaineer, a luxury excursion train, had arrived.  And the train from Jasper to Prince Rupert was made up and ready to go.

Rocky Mountaineer

Train to Prince Rupert

That evening, we stopped by the Anglican Church in Jasper.  They were holding an art auction as a fund-raiser and had some fine pieces - Jasper attracts good artists.  The pieces were too large to fit into the Prius, so we enjoyed without bidding.