Dropped Debbie back at the airport in Calgary and continued my journey west. The brakes were still sounding bad, but I decided to venture up the Icefields Parkway anyway - ever the optimist (yeah, right), I figured it was just some dirt and they would be fine.
Unfortunately, the entire first half of the trip was a washout with heavy rain and fog, so I didn't get to stop at one of my destinations, which was Peyto Lake.
When I got to the Columbia Icefield (left), the rain finally stopped and I could get out and take a picture of the Athabasca Glacier and a couple of others viewable from the Icefield Visitor's Center. There are a total of nice glaciers that flow out of that one icefield, which is 325 square miles in size. Think of a giant high mountain lake (just frozen) with nice rivers flowing out of it in all directions and you pretty much have the Columbia Icefield.
The melt from the Athabasca Glacier forms the Sunwapta River, which flows north toward the Arctic Ocean. To the right is the Sunwapta Falls.In the flat areas, the river branches out into bunches of little rivlets that run every which way (below).
A little farther north and you get to the Athabasca Falls on the same Sunwapta River.
Next stop was Jasper, a quite little town at the far north end of Jasper National Park. Stopped into the Jasper Brewing Company for a couple of pints of IPA and chicken wings (since I can't afford those pricey Canadien nachos).
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