After five days in Banff it was time for us to move to our next destination – Jasper National Park. It was a 2.5 hour drive along the Icefields Parkway and we had planned lots of little stops to do on route. We made our packed lunches, checked out of our AirBnb and set off at around 9.30am

Peyto Lake

Our first stop of the day was Peyto Lake. This was a great stop as there was a short trail from the carpark to reach the lake and it is always nice to have a walk when travelling. From the viewing platform the lake was so blue. I hadn’t realised that the blue is caused by the glacier grinding rock down into rock flour. When the sunlight hits the water it is reflected off these fine particles causing the blue to really stand out.

^{Views of Peyto Lake from the viewing platform – you can see the glacier entering the lake on the left}

There was also a short circular walk through the woods which we followed – it didn’t take long but we were not in any rush.

Waterfowl Lake

We continued along the parkway and our next stop was Waterfowl lake. There was no carpark – more of a pull in area for a few cars and there were no trails to follow. We ate our lunch and played on the rocks taking a few photos.

^{Waterfowl Lake}

^{Waterfowl Lake}

Howse Pass Viewpoint

We then continued to the Howse Pass Viewpoint where there was a large carpark and we were able to follow a short trail through the woods which gave us views of the Howse River, North Saskatchewan River and Mount Sarbach.

Athabasca Glacier

After leaving House Pass it wasn’t long before we could see the Athabasca Glacier on the mountains from the road. The Athabasca Glacier is one of the six main ‘toes’ of the Columbia Icefield and is the most visited glacier in North America.

There was a huge carpark at the visitor center for the glacier so we pulled up and went inside. Upstairs in the visitor center was a hotel and we realised that it was where we had booked to stay on our trip to Canada which was cancelled due to covid! We looked into going out in trucks onto the glacier but it was really expensive and the next tour was in over an hour so decided to just follow the walking trail instead.

^{Following the trail to the glacier}

We could see the ice trucks on the glacier and were pleased that we had just walked down ourselves to the viewing area.

Tangle Creek Falls

This waterfall was on the side of the road so we pulled over in the parking area and took some photos. Tom & Izzy just stayed in the car!

Sunwapta Falls

Our final stop before reaching Jasper was Sunwapta Falls. Here we were able to do another short hike and view the falls.

It was now mid afternoon and we were quite close to Jasper. It was too early to check into our hotel so we drove to the town to have an early tea so we wouldn’t need to go out again later. We opted for Jasper Pizza Place and all ordered pizzas.

^{Food in Jasper}

We then headed to our hotel for the next three nights – The Fairmont – which we were very excited about!