The Icefields Parkway is reputedly and arguably the most scenic highway in the world. It stretches 230km from Banff National Park to Jasper National Park. Surrounding this highway lies 7 icefields (large upland glaciers) and many other smaller glaciers, hence its name. Right in the middle of this highway, there is a road crossing, Saskatchewan Crossing, where you could turn out of the highway. Right at this intersection lies a motel/hotel known as The Crossing Resort (how imaginative...). That's where we stayed as we did not want to rush the beautiful drive along the icefields parkway.

The most famous of the icefields along the Icefields Parkway would be the Columbia Icefields. There is a tourist information center located on site with full tourist facilities including a guided coach tour up one of the glaciers, the Athabasca Glacier (which is the most accessible one). Of course, this is no ordinary coach as the tyres need to be specially designed to climb up the slippery glacier ice. Of course, this coach has to be named .... the Athabasca Snocoach! Interestingly, up on the Athabasca Glacier, water from glacier ice can have some very interesting fate when they flow down the mountain. Depending on which creek,nook or path that they land in, they would flow eventually into one of 3 oceans, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean or the Artic Ocean! Well, I'm no geographic expert, but according to the tour guide, this is known as the Triple Continental Divide.

Driving in the Canadian Rockies can be a harrowing experience, more so for the wildlife living there! Whenever there are wildlife spotted, cars would stop and tourists would come out to take photos. Often, we don't even need to look for wildlife; when we see a minor jam at the side of the highway, we know there's some kind of wildlife spotted. However, it is often noted that some tourists are either really dumb, or extremely dumb. They would go real close thinking these animals are domestic cats or dogs! Some of these wildlife, like the elks, may look gentle but are extremely dangerous, especially when agitated or provoked. I'm sure they don't appreciate their "personal space" being invaded...

We also noticed on several occasions that there are small yellow flags planted at the side of the roads in no apparant patterns. Later, we found out that these are planted by the park rangers whenever a bear is killed by a speeding vehicle . It is saddening to say that there're quite a number of these flags and it is no wonder that the speed limit on the highway had been reduced from 80km to 70km. However, it is even more saddening to say that most of the vehicales do not adhere to the limit .

Jasper townsite, like Banff, is a tourist town. However, what struck me as interesting as we entered the town centre is that there are no traffic lights at all on all the road junctions and crossings! Somehow, traffic just works! We couldn't get our accommodation in Jasper itself, however, and had to settle for a B&B for a couple of days in the next nearest town Hinton, an hour's drive away.

We were into our last day of our trip, and on our way back to our B&B in the evening when we finally saw it. The bear has always been a mascot of sorts for the wildlife in the Rockies, and we were unfortunate (well, fortunate, for those times that we were hiking alone...) not to have seen one in our 7 days. So we were understandably excited when we spotted a black bear foraging in the bushes. And expectedly, a "Bear Jam" followed. Luckily, all the humans were sensible enough to stay in their cars.... The bear didn't stayed long though and disappeared into the vegetation. What an adventure! (for a Singaporean )

It had been a grand adventure indeed and it was a solemn day on our last day as we sped back to Vancouver for our flight home. We had to take the Coquihalla Highway, a less scenic but faster route back, and spent the whole day on the road. Special thanks to my 2 friends who did all the driving, and their patience in enduring my camera fiddling incompetence. Thank you!

Part III: Banff National Park