Escapees November-December 2023

EMILY AND MARK FAGAN #99408 traveled full-time by RV and sailboat for 13 years and now enjoy RVing part-time. Emily has written over 200 articles for various RV and sailing magazines, and the Fagans’ photography has appeared on magazine covers, in commercial wall calendars and even in museums! Follow their blog at roadslesstraveled.us. Our brief “overview tour” of the Canadian Rockies was out of this world, and we can’t wait to return. If you have a chance, go! attraction on the Ice fi elds Parkway. The huge and sophisticated Visitor’s Center was surrounded by dozens of tour buses. Inside, throngs of people snaked towards a ticket counter to buy tickets for tours on specially designed Ice Explorer vehicles that drive on the glaciers. Videos of the these wondrous glaciers played on TV screens high above us to keep the crowd entertained. After a few minutes of standing in line, we decided to save the glacier ride for a future trip. We were surprised during our journey up the Ice fi elds Parkway to discover that the base elevations of the Canadian Rockies between Banff and Jasper are generally below 6000', much lower than the Colorado Rockies where the base elevations in the mountain towns are often over 8,000'. Jasper National Park Continuing up the Ice fi elds Parkway, the soaring, craggy peaks on either side of us gradually diminished in size as we approached Jasper National Park. The mountains shirked their snowy white hillsides in favor of the grays and greens of granite and trees. Athabasca Falls fully lived up to its exotic sounding name with both roaring waterfalls and a walking path that took us upstream and downstream via stairs and scrambles to many pretty viewpoints. Down by the pebbly banks of the Athabasca River, we found dozens of small rock cairns that resembled people. Each one had a head, legs and outstretched arms. We were puzzled by this odd and obviously man-made treasure. Only later did we learn that these are inuksuit which have their origin in the native arctic cultures of North America. People now erect them both in jest and in reverence all over the chillier parts of the continent.

Ice fi elds Parkway The 150-mile-long Ice fi elds Parkway winds through the Rocky Mountains on a south-to-north route from just outside Lake Louise in Banff National Park to the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park. We drove the southern half several times with just our truck before we towed our trailer the entire length of the Parkway to Jasper National Park. Traveling this world-class scenic highway, our eyes were like saucers as we took in one awe-inspiring view after another. There are few scenic overlooks or turnouts on this highway, however, so it is worthwhile to pull over whenever one appears. Starting from the southern end, the fi rst overlook is just a few miles in at Herbert Lake. Skipped by many tourists, we found this viewpoint to be one of the best. The snowcapped mountains behind the lake were perfectly re fl ected in the glassy water, and the fast moving clouds played with their shadows on the hillsides. At Bow Lake we joined dozens of tour buses and rental RVs in the parking area and crept down to the shore where the water’s surface was like a mirror. Suddenly, we heard the faint roar of a distant avalanche. Grabbing our cameras with their telephoto lenses, we watched a wall of ice fall off the mountain. Across the highway from the overlook, we climbed up the hillsides to get a bird’s eye view of the scenery as the early morning sun lit the jagged mountain peaks. But, it was Peyto Lake, a few miles further on, that took our breath away. The hike to the Peyto Lake is a short jaunt through the woods, and we picked our way carefully between ice and mud on the trail. When the trees fi nally cleared and the lake came into view, our jaws dropped as we mouthed the word, “Wow!” In the distance, brilliant blue Peyto Lake fi lleda small crevice between towering mountains. It looked like the heavens had spilled a can of royal blue paint in a puddle at the base of the mountains! A little further north, at Waterfowl Lakes, grouse wandered freely along the shoreline and waddled up to us until we could almost touch them. The famous Columbia Ice fi elds are perhaps the most popular tourist

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November/December 2023 ESCAPEES Magazine