Day 15 - Icefield Parkway

It has been interesting to see how the price of petrol has varied as we have travelled on our journey. In Vancouver it was about $1.19 per litre, in North Vancouver Island it was $1.12, in the South it was $1.07, at Clearwater it was $1.04 and Jasper it was $0.99. Later on we find that the price in Banff is $0.97. It seems that petrol is the cheapest commodity here.
The weather has changed and as we leave our hotel heading for Banff it is raining and we are unable to see the surrounding Jasper mountains. As we reach the Icefield Parkway the weather really starts to close in with more sleet than rain. At the kiosk entrance to the Parkway (highway 93) the lady says she wished that she had brought her Christmas CD and asks us if are used to driving in the snow. We say yes and drive on and within moments we are travelling in driving snow, some of which is lying as slush on the road. The scenery immediately around us is that of a winter wonder land with snow on the trees and ground and the ice-cold pale turquoise Athabasca River, but virtually nothing can be seen of the mountains. The Icefield Parkway is one of the most beautiful roads in the world but I have to focus my attention on the worsening road conditions.
The weather slightly improved as we reach the Athabasca Falls and we go to see the water spectacularly surging over the falls, but we don’t spend too much time there as the driving rain/sleet and cold start to penetrate.
As we start out again the snow again starts to thicken and our journey slows. We reach the Columbia Icefield but decide not to travel on to the ice. There are markers showing where the Athabasca Glacier was 150 years ago, it has retreated 0.9km since then. The ice field is the size of Vancouver with 6 glaciers coming of it, thus holding an awful lot of water (ice cubes). We decide to go and have a coffee and trudge up steps of deep snow to the Tourist Information area which had a good exhibition of the creation and finding of the glacier.
Travelling on we come to Lake Louise, named after the 4th daughter of Queen Victoria. The lake is a metre thick with ice during the winter and when the ice thaws the colour of the water is deep blue owing to the light refraction and the silt coming from the glacier sinking towards the bottom of the lake. The colour of the lake is now is a pale turquoise and is surrounded by mountains and glaciers except at one end where the features of the Fairmont Hotel dominate.
And so, on to our hotel in Banff, our Sat Nav leading the way. We are staying at the Spruce Inn, a relatively new hotel. Our room is very spacious and luxurious. It is larger than any of the others we have had previously been in, with 2 bathrooms which is a real bonus.
The weather shows that it is 9 degrees in Calgary, only an hour away and the forecast is 21 degrees is forecast for tomorrow. We will have to judge how many layers we wear.
An evening stroll up the main street in Banff reveals a much more established shopping area than in Jasper. Banff is again surrounded by mountains and as the evening wears on the cloud slowly clears to reveal fresh snow.