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Canada - The Icefield Parkway
| The Icefields Parkway is quite simply, the most
visually amazing road that I have ever driven upon. 230 kilometres of, and I
quote: 'An unending succession of huge peaks, immense glaciers, iridescent
lakes, wildflower meadows, wild life and forests-one of the worlds ultimate
drives'. Suffice to say, it did not disappoint.
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The first mandatory stop, just a few miles
south of Jasper, are the Athabasca Falls. |
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Just watching all those cubic metres of water
crashing over a lip of quartzite. (it says here)
It makes one feel quite weak at the power of nature. |
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Mt. Kerkeslin with a smoky veil in the
background. |
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Having crashed through the quartzite
rocks, it settles into a canyon smoothed by aeons of watery erosion: 24/7
as the saying goes. |
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The canyon rejoins the river Athabascar on
its way to Jasper (I sense a rhyme)
How long will that tree hang on in there? |
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Same falls, long exposure. |
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Same falls, other side, and a willing
model! |
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A different viewpoint, and another tree in
peril? |
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The Sunwapta Falls, with a welcome dash of
sunlight. |
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| Now we're getting into big boys
country, approaching the epicentre of Canada's glacial activity. The
Athabasca Glacier is part of the Columbia Icefield which is the largest sub polar
icefield on the continent. This and four others produce meltwater that
flows off into three oceans: the Arctic, Pacific and the Atlantic. Not too
many places on earth where that happens. |
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An information board spells it out. All quite
awe inspiring. |
| Later that morning, we arrive at
the Athabasca visitor centre, park up, and start walking towards the
glacier. In the year 1870, this would have taken no time at all, but over
the years, the glacier has retreated, year on year. Along the walk are
small notices with the year at which the glacier was at that point. This
picture shows the steady procession of people heading for its present
position. |
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As we approach, the temperature falls
noticeably. |
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Jean has just passed the 1982 marker. The
building on the right of frame is where the glacier ended in 1870; 1.5
kilometres away.
Soot and ash from the forest fires has accelerated the
melting of all the glaciers this year. |
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The horizontal scratches on this boulder
were caused by the glacier in the past. |
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Thar she blows! Not exactly diminutive and
still quite scary to walk on because of the many crevasses. |
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I listened in to the safety briefing that
these hikers were getting; it was enough to put you off even starting. |
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Well, I just had to get a close-up of the
'toe' of the glacier, and that meant stepping out beyond the barrier and
past all the advisory notices. I paid for it when my right trainer was
subsumed into ankle deep glacial mud! |
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