This is the seventh in a series of posts about our bicycling trip down the Icefield Parkway, through Jasper and Banff National Parks in Alberta, Canada. The full series can be found here.
Just another day in a Northern mountain paradise… We traveled down to the North Saskatchewan River crossing, stopping for lunch at the hotel/restaurant there, and then climbed back up from the river to our next campsite.
This was a really pleasant day of riding, and we got to see a bit of mountain drama as the snow heated up in the sun, and on the distant slopes we saw what looked like waterfalls being blown around by the wind… Avalanches! As we got closer, the roadside trees blocked our view of the mountains, but we could hear an occasional rumbling as the snow let loose. These were Mount Chephren (which looked like the Matterhorn) and White Pyramid Mountain, and we got close up views one last time before we got to Waterfowl Lake.
When we got to the campground we found that our ranger friend had been true to her word: there was a walk-in site reserved for Julie, and it was beautiful. (We wanted to thank her, but we never saw her again.) We set up camp and took a walk, and-we bumped into some of our campsite neighbors who were about to do some lake photography and invited us along.
Paul and Gord were both experienced mountaineers and guides, and had tons of funny, interesting stories about hiking and climbing in the Icefields. We learned a lot about that world, and really enjoyed our time with them while Paul (the photographer) waited for the perfect lake shots. I just took the photos that came my way…
