Our Experience
Checking In
The expertise begins on the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Centre. After check-in, you’ll be able to seize meals at one of many eating places, decide up some items, or learn the interpretive shows to study extra in regards to the space’s geology, nature, and wildlife.
We first checked into the lodge to drop our luggage off. Then we picked up lunch on the Chalet, a cafeteria-style restaurant. Jacob normally goes with the protected guess, whereas I like experimenting with my meals decisions. Why not have enjoyable with it? Because 90% of the time, it backfires. If you’re ordering one thing right here, Jacob’s hen tenders with fries had been your best option, particularly because the fries had been precisely how we favored them.
After ending our meals, we lined up for the bus.
Local Tip: No restrooms can be found in the course of the expertise, so make sure you go earlier than you allow!
ATHABASCA Glacier
The bus trip is a brief one from Discovery Centre. It takes you throughout the road to the glacier’s base, the place you switch to an Ice Explorer. These big transport automobiles seem like one thing out of an area film and take you safely onto the glacier. There are solely 23 on the earth, one in Antarctica and the remainder on the Columbia Icefields.
Photo Tip: There are loads of home windows alongside the aspect and the roof so you’ll be able to benefit from the views as you go, and in case you’re hoping to shoot photographs and video, get a row the place the window can open so you’ll be able to shoot and not using a glare.
After arriving on the glacier, your driver offers you the time to fulfill again on the Ice Explorer, and also you’re free to roam. We had about 25 minutes on the glacier, which was a lot.
There is an space roped off the place you’ll be able to roam freely. The ropes is likely to be annoying for photographs, however security comes first. Bring a water bottle so you’ll be able to style the glacier water.
Local Tip: It’s normally round 27° F (15° C) levels cooler on the glacier than on the Discovery Centre, and it’s usually windy, so pack accordingly! Jacob and Rob had been positively a lot hotter than I used to be of their sleeping bag onesies.
The Columbia Icefield Skywalk
When our time was up, the Ice Explorer took us again to the bus then we rode about 10 minutes north to the Skywalk. The glass-floor Skywalk takes you over the sting of a cliff 918 toes above the valley ground, the place you’ll be able to take within the views of the Canadian Rockies.
There are a number of interpretive indicators alongside the brief stroll, and in case you’re concerned with studying extra in regards to the historical past and geology, they’ve guided excursions too! We didn’t do the guided tour however stopped by to take a look at the bones of a Big Horn Sheep and Mountain Goats..
Unlike different Skywalks we’ve been to, we didn’t need to put on any shoe coverings. They ask that you simply wipe them off on the mats earlier than strolling on the glass. We additionally may shoot our personal photographs and stroll at our personal tempo.
When we had been performed, we headed again in the direction of the parking zone, the place they’ve buses just a few instances an hour to choose up anybody completed and take them again to the Discovery Centre. You can keep as lengthy or as brief as you need!
Local Tip: This season, a household of mountain goats lives underneath the bridge. We noticed one sleeping on the cliffside.
