Ocean-to-Ocean, Part 7

Last week, we explored Yellowstone before heading north again, 370 miles deep into Montana. Another National Park is on the agenda for the next few days, Waterton-Glacier.  This one spans the US/Canadian border, the Glacier part being on the American side while the Waterton Lakes International Peace Park is to the north of it in Alberta.
As the name suggests, the attraction of this particular park is that it has quite a few glaciers nestled among its peaks, which are themselves quite spectacular. Unfortunately there is only one main road, the very narrow, winding and vertiginous Going-to-the-Sun road, running from west to east, and this gets extremely busy. In an attempt to alleviate the overcrowding, the National Park Service have implemented a timed-access system whereby visitors have to purchase in advance a ticket that only allows entry through the main gate during a specific two-hour window. Once inside, you can stay for as long as you want, but by mid-morning most of the people who want to visit are already inside and parking at the main attractions is full. The trick seemed to be to arrive early and make your way directly to one of the most popular areas and explore that. By the time you’ve finished, all the other car parks will be full, so the afternoon has to be spent hiking from one of the remote and under-used trailhead areas.

Heading north again from the eastern end of the park there is another tiny border crossing back into Canada, used only by visitors to the parks. The cheerful immigration agent on duty had a much better knowledge of geography than his American counterpart a week previously and let me through with minimal delay. It was only a short distance from there to the main Waterton Park entrance, where the Parks Canada were waiting to collect their own entry fees.  As I was planning to spend a couple of weeks visiting several other National Parks in Alberta and British Columbia, a quick bit of mental arithmetic confirmed that it would be cheaper to purchase an annual pass which would get me into all of them without having to queue up and buy a $22 ticket every day.

This side was much smaller and less busy than the US side, with ample parking available. There was also a proper little village with shops, restaurants and accommodation, including the very imposing Prince of Wales Hotel, built on top of a hill overlooking the lake.

One full day here was sufficient, so time to start heading west again towards the Rockies. Before long I was in more familiar territory, having visited Alberta many times during the winter to slide down its mountains with a pair of skis clamped to my feet. Passing some of the larger resorts in the car, I couldn’t resist driving up to a couple of them to see what they get up to when there isn’t any snow on the ground – some adapt their slopes and lifts to cater to mountain bikers, others seem to open just for hiking and sightseeing. Lake Louise, one of the bigger ones, already had their snow cannons set-up on the lower slopes, presumably in expectation of an imminent cold snap which they could use to create a base of fake snow to capture the real stuff falling later in the month.

Both Lake Louise and Banff were much busier in the summer than in the winter, although there were some attractions open that hadn’t been available during my winter visits. One of them was the Banff Gondola which (for an eye-watering fee) whisked visitors up to almost the top of the 8,000ft Sulphur Mountain. To get to the true summit, above the gondola top station and restaurant, one has to walk, but it is well worth the effort to get panoramic views across the Rocky Mountains.

After a couple of nights in the Banff & Lake Louise area I headed north along the Icefields Parkway towards Jasper. This was another familiar road, but progress was much quicker without the covering of snow and ice that was present on my previous trips along it.  About half way up was the Columbia Icefield Centre (always closed and shuttered in winter) where they offer snow bus tours to the adjacent Athabasca glacier, which sounded like such good fun that it warranted the purchase of another expensive ticket.
Following a short coach ride a mile or two up a single-track road, passengers are ushered onto a big six-wheel-drive snow bus equipped with huge tractor-style tyres for the drive down a very steep snowy slope onto the glacier, where they can get out and wander around for half an hour. Unsurprisingly, the tour operator’s new $3m battery-powered snow bus, which is apparently a much more environmentally-friendly vehicle for driving tourists around on a melting glacier, wasn’t operating because the solar panels on the roof hadn’t recharged it in time, so we had to make do with one powered by a 300hp Detroit Diesel instead. The horde of Japanese tourists, mostly wearing sensible shoes, discovered that the top of a glacier in late summer comprises about 3” of slushy snow and quickly retreated with soggy feet back to the comfort of the bus, while the more appropriately shod among us paddled around taking pictures for a while. It was quite enjoyable.
Back onto the snow bus and then the normal bus for the return journey, we stopped at the Glacier Ice Walk, a large glass-floored platform constructed overhanging the edge of a cliff with the canyon floor a few hundred feet below. It seemed to have been built purely as another way of fleecing tourists but was included in the cost of the glacier trip so was worth a quick look.

Back to the car to warm up again and continue north towards one of my favourite places, Jasper. There had been huge wildfire in the Summer of 2024 which I’d heard had destroyed much of the surrounding forest and part of the town, so I was concerned about what would be left. Indeed, when I was planning this trip several months previously, my usual favourite hotel in the area wasn’t even accepting bookings because they were still busy trying to clear up the mess that had been left.

Would it be as disastrous as I feared? Find out as I travel up the northern half of the Icefields Parkway next week..
 

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