Day 8 Icefields Parkway, Banff to Athabasca Glacier

 

There’s another Blue Lake! This is Peyto Lake, first stop on today’s busy schedule. It’s such an intense blue Kodak had to send someone out to check the colour was correct. And that’s an alpine ranunculus growing near there.

Onwards to join the thousands of people at Athabasca Glacier, doing the glacier walk. You’re driven in a bus to the foot of the glacier and transferred to an enormous 6-wheel drive all-terrain vehicle with a female driver who calmly navigated the horrendous 18% slope down to the glacier. She is a Canadian married to one of the many Australians working here.

It was fantastic and terrifying. All these people penguin-walking on a sloshy glacier surface and not a scrap of OHS&W to be seen. Even a rope to hold onto would have been nice. It was a relief to get back to our tractor, named Wolf, and be driven back to the relative safety of the restaurant and gift shop where the same thousands of people milled around buying expensive food and STUFF. Moose-patterned pyjamas for Alison?