Icefields Parkway: Glaciers of Highway 93

Banff and Jasper National Parks, Alberta · Canada

Easy5 daysNorth America~£900 est.

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Overview

The 232 km of Highway 93 between Lake Louise and Jasper may be the most concentrated mountain scenery you can see through a windscreen anywhere on earth. Glaciers hang off the Continental Divide on both sides, and the pull-offs come so fast — Herbert Lake at dawn, Bow Lake, Peyto's impossibly blue wolf-head — that a drive timetabled at three hours honestly takes a day. The set-piece is the Columbia Icefield, where you can walk the moraines to the snout of the Athabasca Glacier or climb the Wilcox Pass trail for the panorama the postcards use. Push on past the roar of Athabasca Falls and finish with a quiet morning canoe on Maligne Lake out of Jasper. Book Banff or Lake Louise beds months ahead for July and August, or do it by campervan. The variable that catches people out is time: wildlife jams, trailheads and afternoon storms eat the schedule, so spread the parkway over three or more nights rather than one. Around £900 per person covers five days of park passes, mid-range rooms and fuel, hiring from Calgary.