We had breakfast and then decided to head out to the Colombian Ice fields. We took a back road to Lake Louise because we heard that you were more likely to see wildlife on that road. Well were we surprised when we didn't see any? No! We think it is because Brent doesn't believe that moose and black bears are real. But we did see some incredible scenery. The mountain shown in the picture below is called Castle Mountain. Here are Carolyn and I standing in front of the mountain.
We decided to stop at Lake Louise and go out to the lake. It was absolutely gorgeous. The water is almost a turquoise blue. The blue color comes from the flour (silt from the glaciers) which is suspended in the water. It is a beautiful color. But because of the silt in the lake, it is not a good habitat for fish.
When we first arrived, there was a man from the Swiss Guide Corp. who was playing a Swiss horn. It is called an Alp Horn and it is about 8 feet long. He played several songs on it, and then on a trumpet he played the Canadian National Anthem while the citizen's of Canada sang the anthem. Here you see him with his Alp horn.
There were many canoes on the lake. It looked like great fun.
The first picture you see of the lake as you come from the parking lot is breathe taking.
There is a huge Fairmont Hotel on the side of the lake. It is not nearly as pretty from the outside as the one in Banff but its location is gorgeous.
After a couple of hours walking around the lake and enjoying the beauty we stood in front of the lake and took a picture of all of us.
After leaving Lake Louise, we stopped for a bite of lunch and then headed to the Colombian Ice Fields to go for a ride on the Glacier. As we started out, it began to rain and rained most of the way to the icefields. I was glad Brent was driving. Just before we got the the ice fields, the rain stopped and the weather was beautiful. When we arrived at the Ice Fields, we saw our first moose and dad and Carolyn just had to pose with him.
We boarded a bus that took us out to the ice fields. There we boarded an ice train. They are hugh, high monsters with very large wheels.
Once we got going, we went down a very steep hill onto the glacier. If you look at the line on the bus, you might get some idea of the angle of descent.
When we got onto the glacier, the driver told us alot about the history of glaciers. There are several of them we could see. He talked about the different types of glaciers. It was interesting. When we got towards the top of what we could see, they stopped and let us off. Here you can see dad standing by the ice bus.
Here you see dad, Carolyn and I standing on the Glacier.
You can see the melting water on top of the ice.
The water is very cold and can be drunk. We tasted it while we were out there. The water eventually goes into sink holes and comes out under the glacier although when there is lots of melting some of it flows all the way to the bottom of the glacier. As you can see, there are lots of ridges and peaks and valleys on the glacier. We thought it would be very slippery. But it wasn't. It was also interesting that there were sometimes piles of dirt. The driver said that it was from the snow. The snow forms around little flecks of dirt. As the snow melts, it sometimes deposits the flecks of dirt. where low spots or small pools form, the dirt builds up and you get piles of dirt.
This was probably one of the funnest things for me so far. It was really cool in two ways. I really enjoyed it. Although everything has been fun, it was probably my most favorite thing so far.
After that we drove back to Banff in the rain. We got back around 8:00 and then we had dinner and settled down for the evening. It was a great day.
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