Colombia Icefield

It was cold, windy and rainy as we headed south through Jasper NP to Banff NP. Of course, we had to stop at the Icefield Visitor Center opposite the Colombia Icefield that feeds a number of glaciers including Athabasca where the Ice Explorer will take you onto the Glacier. It certainly is the thing to do (for others!). The Center has excellent information including one of the original 'buggies' that went on the glacier. And did you know that the Colombia Icefield feeds rivers that flow into the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans? Pretty amazing!

More Jasper area

We have had 4 glorious days in Jasper area. Because the city is entirely within the park, its development has been entirely controlled since the park was established in 1907. Nothing can be done in the 'city' without Park (read government) approval. There can be no expansion of the city footprint, design is controlled and it is just a delightful community of about 5800.

Athabascan Falls was just spectacular. Wildflowers are just coming out - and we did finally see a male and female elk (not together), mountain goats and Rocky Mt Bighorn sheep - female and kids. But just being in this environment to look, enjoy, marvel, sense.... hard to describe.

Jasper National Park

The pictures tell the small and the big of it!

The sign at Mystery Lake explains the origin of the name. The lake disappears into cracks and fissures becoming nothing more than a trickling steam as the summer goes on. They have just found the outlet for this underground 'river' which is believed to be one of the longest known.

The picture of Annette Lake with Pyramid Mt in the background just gives a small hint of the vivid turquoise waters. Just great trails, peace and tranquility - and few people around to enjoy it all.

We saw mama bear and 2 cubs, golden mantled ground squirrels (VERY obnoxious!), marmot, mule deer, red squirrels and only a few birds today.

VIA rail across B.C.

WOW!! We have had a few days of sensory overload, and I expect it will continue. We boarded an Inside Passage Ferry from Juneau to Prince Rupert, BC. - depart Thurs, June 11@ 7:45pm, arv early a.m. Sat. (2 stops) The community is celebrating Seafest. What fun watching the parade of local bands, floats, organizations, native dancers, etc. - and - there were more people there than we have seen our whole trip!!!!

Sunday, 8 am, we boarded the Skeena train on the VIA rail system for a 2 day trip across British Colombia. The trip takes you along 2 major river systems and the only road across southern BC. Despite the time on the train, 13 hrs on day 1 and 9 hrs on day 2, the fact that we were such a small group (only 25-30) of travelers - mostly European - made for good fun and conversation. The picture shows Mt Robson, the highest peak in Canada which is on the western edge of the Rockies.

Tracy Arm Fjord

A truly spectacular day of sun and awesome 'beauty' on an all day tour to Tracy Arm fjord and the S. Sawyer Glacier. To paraphrase the author of a book about Tracy Arm - "a journey to Tracy Arm isn't about a checklist of spotted species, or an accounting of facts and figures or miles on a map. Such details add context, but ultimate meaning lies in grasping the magnitude of the drama of creation and destruction cast on a scale so grand it must be felt rather than understood."

Compare this glacier to the Mendenhall which ends in a lake accessible area close to Juneau.

The ice Charlie is holding was scooped up at the terminus of the glacier where we watched the events unfolding for over an hour. It's hard to imagine the age of this ice -- but not the age of the 'cutie' deckhand to the right of Charlie!

The images fill in the rest - 100s of seals and pups floating on ice flows, humpback whales feeding, black bears at water's edge, Bald Eagles fighting over a fish, steep glacial rock walls, spray from up close and familiar water falls, vivid blue ice floats,, the thunder and crack of the ice calving off the glacier and the glacier itself - 200' above the water and 900' below, 1/2 mile across and a constant work in progress. Spectacular day!!

Publish Post

Juneau

We're on our second day in Juneau and have had 2 very busy days. We hobknobbed with the hundreds who came off the 4 cruise ships on day one - WHAT A MOB SCENE!!! Imagine over 1000 (2000?) people hitting 2 street's worth of multiple 'harbor view' shops all at once... the shops all selling furs, jewelry, native crafts and more things that one doesn't need than you can possibly imagine. Tonight we watched a store owner assure a buyer that the 7' 'stick' she was buying would definitely get shipped safely. We couldn't imagine her concern until we asked what was so valuable about that stick. It was a narwhal "horn"!!!!!! Very rare and just what the owner wanted to sell - $15,000 or more!!!

We also visited the Mendenhall Glacier just outside the city, walked some lovely trails, missed seeing the bear (yay!), but got great views of the porcupine!

Charlie's Impressions!

This household has all the tools for survival in Nome - snowmachine, dog sled and ATV!

But Charlie is not ready to move to Nome! Too messy for one thing! Seems whatever anyone owns ends up in the front yard or out in the boonies wherever it stopped - like snowmobiles! We actually saw a couple of guys heading out with snowmobiles on trailers ready for one last ride - in the wind and rain!! Probably warmer than in Jan. at least!!

ONE orange was $3.29! A gallon of windshield washer fluid - $9.99! Parked next to almost every house was at least one snowmachine and one ATV. But these people are innovative and resourceful as the covered 'buggy' indicates. He visited and is glad to have left.