Lake Louise was a bit of a disappointment! We had decided to take the Icefields Parkway north from Lake Louise to Jasper – the whole thing. So we drove from Golden to Lake Louise in the early morning – so as to see it before everyone else got the same good idea. But alas, several kilometers before the lake traffic controllers started showing up in their yellow vests, and soon we found ourselves in a long queue of busses, cars and motorcycles. I got out of the car to ask where the exit might be, we wanted to turn back, but was shouted back into the car – one would have thought we were in a dangerous place!

To cut a long story short, we did finally reach the exit – the carpark was completely filled up already and everything around the lake was chaos, or so it seemed to us – and that is exactly why we try to avoid the main tourist sites and go for the lonely roads! I am quite certain that the lake is exceptionally beautiful, or all those people would not have been there, but that must wait till another fine day.

Beautiful was also the Icefields Parkway stretching though the Rocky Mountains – even the clouds and the rain could not take that away from it. It is said the be the highest and most wondrous road in Canada – 240 kilometers of such imposing landscapes that it takes your breath away – and even becomes slightly trivial in all its beauty and majesty.

Let me take you through in pictures and maybe you will go yourself one day – who knows where life will take us. On this day it took us – and hundreds of others – through the most breathtaking of scenery – and thank you Canada for preserving it so well.

The water

The mountains

The glaciers

The Athabasca Falls

Note the brown trees in the background. Unfortunately many trees in the park have been infected with the pine beetle and are dying out. But that may just be a way with nature – new life will hopefully spring from the earth after these trees are gone.

Potholes suspended on the sides of the canyon. Small particles of sand have drilled these holes over thousands of years as with a fine diamond drill.

Alpine like growth on the walls of the canyon…

The others

Wild life

As always the guidebooks promise more than they can fulfill. The only wildlife we saw was this wildlife bridge and an elk cow posing for a photographer on a field outside Jasper.

The wayfarers