As the Columbia Icefield had been under cloud when we past it originally two days ago, we decided to return today as there was a bright sunny day in Jasper that looked set in for the day.
A much sunnier day than last time we had climbed up to the col of the Columbia Icefield. The snow capped peaks were glinting in the sunlight. Small blip was that we were running short of petrol, and I had to make the decision whether to go on past the summit for 50 km to nearest petrol station, or risk return to Jasper of 120 km. In the end settled for the risk in reaching Jasper, and made it!
A completely different sort of day then last time. We got there early enough to be on the first bus, and there were less than a dozen of us on it, so when we got to the snow, it was uncrowded. There are 12 of these buses, so if all are running with 40 people on each, it must be a bit crowded up there.
The busses are specially commissioned multi wheel drive, go anywhere vehicles. The sort of slope it could attack on the moraine approach was impressive.
We duly reached the glacier itself, and posed for the obligatory photo. A JCB re-grading the parking area for the day got stuck in a snow drift while we were there, and the efforts of a snow bus did not move it. Last we saw a tracked bulldozer was heading up to have a go,
On a clear day like this the glacier was quite stunning, with the snow covered tops of the mountains all around. A jet passing by was quite dramatic against the blue of the sky.
Getting back to our own car, we descended to Jasper again
And along the way saw this Black Bear snuffling along beside the road, having an eat of this and that. He completely ignored us, and we in turn ensured that we did not get too close to him.
And back on the level, it was a straight run into Jasper, Alberta, again