Canadian Rockies

At the Calgary airport, I could see visitors from all over the world. There were two other Indian families on the flight other than ours. Hiring two cars from Hertz (car rental company) at the airport, we left for the hotel in Banff where my brother in law had booked rooms. We were lucky on two counts; the hotel was a really decent one, but we had managed to get the rooms at a cheaper rate because it was past the peak season. At the same time, the good weather continued. Banff seemed to welcome us with an extended summer.

The ride to Banff from the Calgary airport took us approximately an hour and a half and was quite an interesting one. About half an hour away from Calgary, you could see the Rockies from a distance. It was almost like looking at a painting. For a few miles around you there was flat land and suddenly at a distance rose the mountains. I just could not help comparing this with the splendor that is Uttaranchal where I think the transition in topography is a lot more gradual. The Banff town is in the BanffNational park which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a pretty little town with mountains all around. The town is at an elevation of 4800 feet. There are lots of shops and hotels. It also has a good vegetarian restaurant!

We left for Lake Louise after depositing our stuff at the hotel. On our way, we saw four or five deer that were sauntering around the town. Unfortunately, these were the only fauna during our entire trip to the Rockies that we saw unless of course you count the snails, squirrels, birds and insects. We were hoping to catch sight of a grizzly or two, but to no avail. Lake Louise is in BanffNational park, which is Canadas first National Park. The view I got here was nothing short of spectacular. Surrounding the emerald waters of the lake (the lake used to be called emerald lake) were the snow capped mountains. In their midst was the Victoria glacier that feeds the waters of the lake. The glacier was named after Queen Victoria and the lake after one of her daughters, Louise.

I did not know whether to keep looking at the crystal clear blue green waters of the lake or the glacier or the whole pristine setting. The color of the water in the glacial lake is due to the sediments brought by the meltwater from the glaciers. It is just too beautiful to be captured in its essence in a photo or an article. We sat on the bank for a while admiring the color of the lake and the glacier above the lake. There are trails along the shore of the lake where you can go for a leisurely or a brisk walk depending on the weather. A brisk walk keeps you warm if there is a chilly wind. Fortunately for us the weather was sunny and we could afford to stroll just enjoying the magic of the surroundings. There is a beautiful hotel right on the banks of the lake called Chateau Lake Louise. Those who could afford to stay there would most certainly get a lovely view from their rooms! In winter, the beautiful lake freezes and people can actually skate on it I am told! For me the joy of this trip was compounded by the fact that all my four sisters were with me on this trip. After decades the five of us were traveling together!

From Lake Louise we went straight to the Columbian Icefields, which I think was the climax of our whole trip to Alberta. The icefields are between Lake Louise and Jasper. It is about 75 miles to the north of Lake Louise and 65 miles to the south of JasperNational Park. The drive, a spectacular one, took us a little more than two hours. There were many other beautiful lakes including the BowLake and view points on the way. We were on the look out for animals but had to be content with the dung of some big mammal on the road! Visitors a few minutes ahead of us would have seen the animal cross the road. Any disappointment we felt was compensated by the scenery that the drive offered. Mountains covered with pine and spruce with snow on top, beautiful blue lakes and excellent roads that are not in the least crowded. What more can you ask for?

At the IcefieldCenter, we purchased the tickets to the snow coach ride on the Athabasca glacier, one of the eight major glaciers fed by the Columbian Icefield. The most famous glacier in North America, it sees a lot of visitors especially in summers. People are warned not to go on the glacier without a guide because it can be really dangerous. It seems two visitors in separate incidents fell into the crevasses and died of hypothermia. The driver of our snowmobile was a cheerful young man who also doubled as our guide. He pointed out that the icefield, a relic of the ice age, is on top of a triple continental divide and that if you poured water on top of the icefield here it would feed three oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic! The Columbian icefield is an accumulation of about 325 square kilometers of ice and snow. The tires of the snow coach were almost as tall as some of the passengers including me. You don't at all realize that the vehicle is descending a steep slope before landing on the tongue of the glacier. I had been wondering how we would descend and was bracing myself for a tough ride but we did not even notice it.

While we were on the bus, the driver cautioned us not to cross the blue cones that were kept on the glacier as barriers because beyond that point you could not be very sure whether the ice beneath your foot would give way! There were some crevasses on the glacier which could be very dangerous. As we got down from the coach to walk on ice that is hundreds of years old, cold winds welcomed us. We had to walk very carefully on the surface of the glacier because it was very slippery. At places it was transparent and you could see water beneath. We were actually on the icefall (similar to a water fall!) below the glacier headwall.

We stood wonderstruck on the 300 meters thick ice staring at the vast expanse of stark bluish white before us shivering due to the cold but not really minding it or even noticing it. On a physical level the body responded to the minus four degrees temperature but our mind refused to be distracted by the cold and was more interested in observing the huge mass of ice around us. Glacial ice looks blue because it reflects the blue colour and absorbs the rest from the visible light. Some of the passengers found the cold unbearable and got into the bus after some ten minutes but could not resist getting down again to experience the joy of standing or walking on thick ice of the glacier, which is one tongue of the huge icefields. We were allowed a total of twenty minutes on the glacier. While returning, the guide pointed out the crevasses. We tried to take pictures from the snow coach. The guide remarked that about a century ago the icefields extended right up to the present location of the highway! The extent to which the glacier has receded leaves you brooding.

As we returned to Banff via the Bow valley, it was sunset time and the snow capped mountain to the left took on a golden hue.

The next morning we visited the Cave and Basin National Historic site. Here the original hot springs are preserved. The discovery of the hot springs by early explorers of Banff resulted in the Banff area being declared as a National Park. You are cautioned not to touch the water because any contamination could prove toxic to the snails living in the thermal springs. The Banff springs snail is considered endangered. Later we took the gondola ride to the top of the SulphurMountain. The ride takes about eight minutes. As you ascend the mountain in the glass enclosed cabin, the pine trees below you keep getting smaller and the ones near the top are covered by snow. At the top, there is a viewing platform, a restaurant and a gift shop! You get a lovely view of LakeMinnewaunka, the Bow river valley, the beautiful Banff town and the snowcapped peaks. The Banff Springs hotel below appears to merge into the background. We climbed to the Sanson peak that has the Sanson observatory. On the boardwalk, there was hardened snow at certain places. The observatory is named after Normn Sanson, a meteorologist who used to trek up the mountain frequently in the early 1900s to record the temperatures.

The next morning we left beautiful Banff for Calgary by the rented vehicle. We returned the vehicle near the airport and caught a flight to Vancouver. The only regret that we felt was that, in what is repeatedly advertised as bear country, we had to be content with looking at deer and some dung!