Glaciers on Icefields Parkway

Leaving beautiful Lake Louise, we first drove south along the Bow River Parkway for a bit, just to bask in the amazing mountain scenery, taking a short break to photograph our first bear of the trip. Heading north after a few kilometers, we turned off Hwy 1 onto the Icefields Parkway, a 153km scenic route between Lake Louise and Jasper.
Again, around every corner was a scene of staggering beauty with vast valleys, high jagged peaks and trees of every variety. The Columbia Icefield is the main tourist stop with rides right up to the glacier; we opted to photograph it from below so we could keep going. Further along were the Tangle Creek Falls in full flood from spring melt.
We made a stop at the Athabasca Falls, taking the short walk in to where the river drops several hundred feet in a swirling cauldron of spray, rainbows and glistening rock.

One of the things that impressed us was the high shelf of snow capping ridges hundreds of feet higher up. The wind had carved them to match the ridgeline, and all the snow below had fallen away. As we made our way up passes and down valleys, the spring temperatures had thawed several lakes, but many of them at higher elevations were still frozen over and covered with snow, a glorious sight among the trees and mountains. Here, too, the aspen have come into their spring color, a vivid green that will later give way to the beautiful yellow we saw as we traveled through Colorado last fall. Each season has its own serene, awesome beauty to enjoy!