8/16/16 Canadian Rockies: Banff, Kootenay, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks

 

Bow Lake and Glacier, Jasper NP

From Calgary and Stampede, we headed west to the heart of the Canadian Rockies:  Banff and Jasper National Parks.  Banff and Jasper are almost wholly within Alberta, but the Canadian Rockies spill over into British Columbia and north almost to the Yukon.  To keep the ecosystem complete and to support the wide ranges of the large mammals, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks were added.  The combined parks are much larger than Yellowstone National Park, which is the largest in the continental US.  We spent three weeks among the four parks, traveling south to north.   


Hiking Rainy Day, Lake Johnson, Banff NP

Unfortunately, the weather was not so good most of the time we were here. It was the wettest and coldest July for years.  We worked around the rain as best as possible, and only stayed inside when it absolutely poured.  And we took advantage of every partly sunny day to drive or hike to the best parts of the parks and to take photos.  The good part about the weather, the infamous biting, black flies that usually pester visitors were nowhere to be found.   

Mt Rundle from Vermillion Lakes, town of Banff

The rain also gave us a reason to visit the Royal Canadian Legion posts in Banff and Jasper more frequently than we might have otherwise….which gave us a chance to have great conversations with the locals and a few Canadian WWII, Korean and Afghanistan/Iran veterans.  In Banff, we talked at length with the Banff’s ex-mayor and current Legion president. The city of Banff was carved out of the National Park; therefore, it has all the issues of a small town, PLUS it has to get approval from the National Parks for most things.  Imagine the bureaucracy that has to be dealt with.  It can take 3-4 years to get approval to build.   

Icefields Parkway, Jasper NP

 

Columbia Icefield, Multiple Glacier Arms, Jasper NP

Bow Parkway, Banff NP

Icebergs, Cavell Pond, Cavell Glacier, Mt. Edith Cavell, Jasper NP

The scenery here is gorgeous.  Although the Canadian Rockies are not as high as the American Rockies in absolute terms, the mountains and valleys are steeper and deeper and often much more dramatic.   The glaciers did a wonderful job in sculpting interesting mountain tops, along with hanging valleys, terminal and lateral moraines, and beautiful large aqua glacial lakes.  There are LOTS of existing glaciers from huge icefields, including the Columbia Icefield.  We even hiked to a glacial lake that had icebergs in it from one of the three glaciers feeding the water.  The Columbia Icefields Parkway is one awesome Ahh! to another along its entire 144 mile length. 

 

Mountain Goat, Jasper NP

The ecosystem supports a great variety of wildlife and lots of large mammals.  Most of our wildlife encounters were rarer here than in Yellowstone, even though the park is bigger.  The limited road access into the remote areas make it difficult to encounter animals.  However, we did see black and grizzly bears, mountain goats, elk herds (one day in Jasper they set up camp in our campground), and random mule deer.  One early morning, a black bear crossed the road in front of our car on an almost deserted road.  On the whole, Yellowstone was much better for wildlife viewing, both in the numbers and kinds of wildlife seen. We were lucky because two weeks after we were in Banff’s Tunnel Mountain campground, it was closed because of wolves and the campers evicted for days with everything full (have no idea where they went).  



Lake Louise and Glacier Reflections, early am, Banff NP

Bob and I met in Banff 36 years ago on a ski trip with friends, and then continued dating and married two years later.  We were anxious to visit the places we had been, both when we met and 10 years later when we skied in Banff for our 10^th anniversary.  Sadly, we didn’t recognize much of anything.  Of course, it was summer versus winter, but more importantly, most of the facilities had been completely redone (it has been 36 years!).  The Lake Louise ski area looks like most of the newer modern ski villages, and the old lodge is sadly gone.  The biggest shock was that the Banff Springs Hotel and the Lake Louise Chalet were also completely different.  Both had been purchased by the Fairmont Hotel Group and updated.  Most of the beautiful, historic gilded age railroad hotel features were nowhere to be found.  The properties are beautiful, but it would have been nice to keep some of the historic elements in place.  Many of the similar properties in the US have been

Banff Springs Hotel, Banff

able to do that and still modernize.  There were some pictures of the older historic buildings in the hallways…..We enjoyed attending Banff’s St. Paul’s Presbyterian church Sunday morning services and having coffee with members and other visitors including one couple from Florida. 


Spirit Island, Maligne Lake, Jasper NP

 

We did a LOT of hiking, even in the rain (as long as it wasn’t pouring down).  We experienced great hikes to many moraine lakes, toes of glaciers, glacier overlooks, incredibly deep slot limestone canyons with roaring water from the rain and glacial melt, lots of waterfalls, various hot springs, and sometimes just quiet deep woods.  The boat trip on the largest glacial lake in Jasper, Maligne Lake, with a stop at the famous Spirit Island, was beautiful.   



Mist Rainbow, Athabasca Falls, Jasper NP 

In Yellowstone, we had met someone who asked us which way we were traveling; north to south or south to north.  We told him we were going north.  He said we were lucky.  He had started in the north and was going south, and he felt that the further north you went, the more beautiful it became.  He said everything after Jasper was anticlimactic to him.   He was right.  We would recommend the trip, as we did it, from south to north to be in constant awe of your surroundings….it is way too beautiful to be disappointed by anything.  


Peyto Lake and Icefields Parkway, Jasper NP

From Jasper, we visited Hinton, Alberta; this was the most northern place we will have visited on our 3-year trip (according to our current plan): 53 DEGREES 24.000 MINUTES NORTH.  This is about the same latitude as the southernmost part of Alaska.  As we have traveled north, the days have grown longer.  It has been light from about 4:00 am until after 11 pm each day.  Bob made a blackout cover for our bathroom skylight so we could get to sleep before midnight and sleep past 5 am.   


Moraine Lake, Banff NP

The Canadian Parks seem to be configured and operated very differently than US National Parks.  The number of roads and trails into the backcountry seem to be more limited, so the few that exist are often very crowded…it is hard to get away from people and to find parking spaces.  The visitor centers do not have exhibits or movies to educate you, but are more like information and reservation centers for restaurants, hotels and tours.  We like the US approach to National Parks better; we especially look forward to the visitor centers and their exhibits and movies about each park you visit.  It is interesting to read numerous articles in local newspapers criticizing the Parks Canada management approach of getting more tourists into already crowned spaces at the expense of conservation and environmental preservation.  We do not know if this is true or not, as much of the parks are not accessible, except by very rugged and remote trails into the backcountry.  Of course, we have no desire to go backpacking to remote campsites – too cold, even in the summer and too rugged for us senior hikers. 



Bow Lake and Glacier Reflections, Jasper NP

In spite of the cold, damp weather, we enjoyed it all. It is now August and still cold and wet – more like spring.  It looks like we will completely miss summer this year (maybe not so bad with the Florida heat this year)…we are too far north to be able to enjoy wearing shorts and tee shirts.   

We are now headed to the Okanagan Wine country to visit some friends and taste some of the best Canadian wine, and then on to Vancouver and Vancouver Island.  We will wear shorts in the Okanagan Valley. 

We thank God for his blessings and our safety as we continue our travels. 

For those of you who might be interested and have the patience to read it, Bob prepared a “Geology” addendum comparing the Canadian Rockies to the American Rockies.  Read below (and enjoy?) at your own risk. 

For those of you who would prefer to read this on-line or on your phones, you can find this update and previous reports at: http://RVRamblin1.blogspot.com.  The blog includes the same copy but a lot of additional pictures and videos as well.    Feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested.  

Best, 

Linda and Bob

 

MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CANADIAN ROCKIES VERSUS THE AMERICAN ROCKIES 

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting the Canadian Rockies, here are a few interesting geological observations and comparisons of the Canadian to the American Rockies.  

Having spent a little time in the Colorado and Wyoming Rockies, Bob found it surprising that is no granite or high-grade metamorphic rocks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains which are made almost entirely of sedimentary and low-grade metamorphic rock.  There is lots of granite and metamorphic gneiss and volcanic rock (western portion) in the American Rocky Mountains, unlike the Canadian Rockies. 

To begin it all, there was a much earlier set of American Rockies (Ancestral Rockies) which had been eroded flat by 170 million years ago (mya).   By the time the current (second set) of American Rockies began to rise/uplift 75 mya, (pushed up by all that granite), the Canadian Rockies, including northern Montana and Idaho, were already uplifted and in existence.  The Canadian Rockies stopped growing 35 mya while the American Rockies kept rising until the Pleistocene (about 1.8 mya).   

Generally, the American Rockies have deep faulting to the base of the plate (31+ miles deep) and exposed basement rock.  Interestingly, faults in the Canadian Rockies are shallow (only 6+ miles deep) and there is almost no exposed basement rock. 

During the Pleistocene glacial advances, as recent as 12,000 years ago (there were many earlier glaciers), the continental glacier ice sheets were much thicker in the Canadian Rockies than in America due to fact that they are much further north and the climate was colder.  Therefore, the impact of glaciers on the landscape is much greater in the Canadian Rockies.  

It is good to remember that glaciers do not made the initial landscape; they only “modify” the existing landscape.  For example, water/river erosion makes an original “V” shaped valley; then, the glacier follows and carves the existing valley into the “U” shaped valley we see today.  Almost all of the highest peaks of the Canadian Rockies were buried under thick ice, whereas most of the peaks of the American Rockies (and also the mountain peaks of the Tetons and Glacier NPs) were not under ice sheets, so we see many alpine glacier features on the peaks such as horns, aretes and cirques – some but not so much in the Canadian Rockies.  

While the American Rockies are spectacular with many peaks over 14,000 feet high, we believe the Canadian Rockies are more dramatic to see.  The highest peak in the Canadian Rockies is Mt Robson at 3,454 Meters (those pesky Canadians use Meters, so for us Americans that is 11,501 feet).  Most of the highest Canadian Rockies peaks are 10-11,000 feet elevation; however, the topographic relief (the difference between the highest and lowest elevation) in the Canadian Rockies is typically much greater over a shorter distance than in the American Rockies, making the topography incredibly dramatic and scenic.   

Of course, the jagged limestone and dolostone and quartzite (all sedimentary rock) peaks and hogback ridges rising straight up out of the valleys make beautiful scenery and wonderful experiences.     

The Rocky Mountains of both America and Canada are well worth the trip and are a very rewarding experience for geologists and non-geologists alike.  The above information and more details about the Canadian Rockies can be found in the great 576 page book, Canadian Rockies, Geology Road Tours , by Ben Gadd, Geologist.