Rock on

Wow.

I think that's a pretty good word to sum up The Canadian Rockies - specifically the Icefields Parkway, mainly because that's what we'd say around most bends travelling the never ending promenade of peaks, valleys, vistas and glaciers that crescendoed with the Columbia Icefields. The brutal ruggedness of the mountains, complemented by nana-type shawls of white snow and ice never failed to gobsmack the most jaded viewer. If it wasn't so dangerous we'd have been amused at the many wayward drivers staring at the scenery rather than the road.
Yeah, OK, guilty.


The lack of wildlife wasn't that disappointing, although there was a bit of one-upmanship between groups as my luxury-RV-dwelling sister and her family ticked off a wolf and a bear on one day to our naive rabbit-hole-dwelling, I mean, Westfalia-dwelling family's road-kill racoon. RV envy? Not at all! But for a proper RV versus a Westfalia comparison, have a good look at that second picture from my wife's last blog. We had a chip on our shoulder from the first night, but on the plus side, we didn't have an Austin Power's moment if we wanted to do a u-turn.
Small compensation.

But I digress. The Icefields Parkway.



All that previous excitement on day one, as eloquently explored by Teesha, and we haven't even made it onto the parkway proper. Although we were a little disappointed we didn't see the Grizzly that put us behind the electric fence - especially seeing as even dinner came with a warning


we motored off down one of the most amazing pieces of road in the world.


Fortunately for family unity we saw a bear later in the trip


And we also experienced bear-gridlock that confirmed we weren't the only wildlife -starved touring group on the Parkway.


The Columbia Ice Fields themselves were amazing, but failed to impress a hard audience


The mountains were so impressive that even dramatic clouds had trouble dominating the landscape.


Amazing? Unstoppable? Throw a sunset in.


Sensational!