Leg 8, Lake Louise, AB, to Icefields Centre, AB - Jul 7, 2009

One of Our Most Scenic Drives The Icefields Parkway has special meaning to us as we spent our honeymoon here in 2000. The scenery is breathtaking the entire route. Much has changed though; seems like lots more people and traffic, and the consequential effects. We departed Lake Louise Campground at 7:30 AM for an early start, hoping to increase our odds of seeing animals along the Parkway route. We’re not sure it worked, as we saw one male deer, in velvet, and a black bear, our first for the trip; regrettably, no photos of either. We arrived at the Icefields Centre, parked and somewhat leveled our rig, and headed for the building housing the interpretive center, ticket sales, and shop. Despite rain, we took the bus, then the special “Ice Explorer” to Athabasca Glacier; amazing!

Athabasca Glacier

Kay on Athabasca Glacier

Though still early afternoon, we “retired” to the motorhome for the day, catching up on journal writing, downloading photos and videos, and copying files to the external hard drive.

Kay’s Take Thank goodness Donald knows how to ‘dry camp’. There’s a large parking lot with about 25 RVs spending the night here at the Columbia Icefields Center.

Our Campsite

No electricity, just battery power (inverter) and/or the generator. I had cooked some meat last night after we grilled some burgers to use in a casserole Ray Minardi had given me the recipe for. It is kind of like a jambalaya but it also has cabbage in it. I mixed it all up and cooked it this evening after ‘my nap’. A hot supper is just the ticket for a cold, rainy day. Donald thinks we may get close to freezing weather up here tonight. Donald went to the RV group evening meeting to go over the next day’s travel to Grande Cache, Alberta. That will be our last night in Alberta. The next day we travel to Dawson Creek, BC the official start of the ALCAN Highway. The further north we go, the longer we have daylight. Kay is staying up much later than her usual 9:00 p.m. these days! Hehehehe! Oh, yes, out of 18 motorhomes, only about 5 of us are dog-free. All the rest of these folks have/are traveling with their dogs – big ones and small ones. One set has two dogs!

Campground Columbia Icefields Centre (RV Parking Lot) This was dry camping on a sloping parking lot, and the cost was $10.80 Canadian. We were comfortable and able to test our equipment (batteries, propane appliances, etc.)

Driving Statistics

Beginning Mileage: 11,527.7

Beginning Time: 7:30 AM MDST

Ending Mielage: 11,615.7

Ending Time: 10:30 AM MDST

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 88.0

CUMULATIVE MILEAGE FOR THE TRIP: 2,136.2