July 9 - Canmore, AB to Hinton, AB - 250 miles

Today's ride included the famous section of Highway 93, the Icefield Highway, between Banff and Jasper, Alberta.  We took our time, and stopped to see whatever appealed to us.

This is incomparable scenery when it comes to rock-topped mountains with lots of snow and actual glaciers.  Yesterday's ride through the Rockies south of Banff was so great, we didn't think today's could be as good or better.  It turns out that each section has it's own greatness, with the Icefield Highway having the edge when it comes to amounts of snow visible, and the larger glaciers themselves.  Some of you will have lasting memories of this area if you have been through it.

This section of the Rockies has just rugged mountain after rugged mountain of jagged rock, with snow that highlights the craggy and steep cliffs at various levels.  It is almost incomprehensible that so many beautiful mountains are in one place, about 200 miles long. 

We stopped at the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Ice Field, walked up to the edge of it, and then went to the visitors center for a larger view of the overall glacier field of which the Columbia Glacier is a part.  This is a very large glacier field, and surprisingly, produces water which flows into three oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Arctic.  (It is the highest point in Alberta, at 3,747 meters (12,393 ft.) elevation.)

We also stopped at Athabasca Falls, over which flows all of the glacier melt water going to the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, and which have been being worn away for 10,000 years or so.  What a sight!  And we made the obligatory stop at the beautiful and unique Lake Louise, with its milky-blue lake caused by the glacier-dust ice melt from the glacier in the background.

Ice fields bring the picture of cold temperatures, right?  Yes, it was a little cold today, with the low of about 50^o F, and the high being about 60^o F.  Then while the morning was nice, afternoon brought mountain showers, about a half dozen of them until we rode the last 70 miles or so in intermittent rain.  But, we had on our good riding suits of Cordura and Goretex, so we were comfortable.

Then, as we rode north of Jasper, we had our second good wildlife day, with the sighting of four BIG bull Elk.  They were beautiful, and just grazing along the side of the road so that we were within 20 yards of them.  Further on, we saw more mountain goats, about eight in the group, with two cute little ones.

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