THE COLUMBIA ICEFIELD
Bairdstravel used Sundog tours to vist the famous Icefield.
Expensive
The Columbia Icefield is an icefield located in the Canadian Rockies, astride the Continental Divide of North America. The icefield lies partly in the northwestern tip of Banff and the southern end of Jasper National Park. It is about 325 km² in area, 100 to 365 metres (328' to 1,197') in depth and receives up to seven metres (23 ft) of snowfall per year.
The Icefields Parkway, also known as Highway 93, is a scenic road in Alberta, Canada. It parallels the Continental Divide, traversing the rugged landscape of the Canadian Rockies.
It travels through Banff National Park and Jasper National Park, linking Lake Louise and Jasper. Highway 93 also runs concurrently with Highway 1 between Lake Louise and the Castle Mountain junction, where it continues into Kootenay National Park in British Columbia as the Banff-Windermere Highway.
The parkway, 230 km (143 mi) in length, was completed in 1940; it is named for features such as the Columbia Icefield, which is visible while traveling the parkway.
The parkway is very busy in the summer months of July and August with peak traffic flow of 100,000 vehicles per month.
The parkway is primarily a two-lane highway with occasional passing lanes. The highway is well engineered to minimize grades and hairpin turns but drivers must also be on the lookout for wildlife, touring cyclists, and vehicles stopped on the shoulder. Extreme weather conditions are also a factor, particularly during winter.
