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Our Expertise
Checking In
The expertise begins on the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Centre. After check-in, you possibly can seize meals at one of many eating places, decide up some items, or learn the interpretive shows to be taught extra concerning the space’s geology, nature, and wildlife.
We first checked into the resort to drop our luggage off. Then we picked up lunch on the Chalet, a cafeteria-style restaurant. Jacob normally goes with the protected guess, whereas I like experimenting with my meals selections. Why not have enjoyable with it? As a result of 90% of the time, it backfires. If you happen to’re ordering one thing right here, Jacob’s hen tenders with fries have been your best option, particularly for the reason that fries have been precisely how we appreciated them.
After ending our meals, we lined up for the bus.
Native Tip: No restrooms can be found throughout the expertise, so make sure you go earlier than you permit!
ATHABASCA Glacier
The bus experience is a brief one from Discovery Centre. It takes you throughout the road to the glacier’s base, the place you switch to an Ice Explorer. These big transport autos appear to be one thing out of an area film and take you safely onto the glacier. There are solely 23 on this planet, one in Antarctica and the remaining on the Columbia Icefields.
Photograph Tip: There are many home windows alongside the facet and the roof so you possibly can benefit from the views as you go, and if you happen to’re hoping to shoot pictures and video, get a row the place the window can open so you possibly can shoot and not using a glare.
After arriving on the glacier, your driver offers you the time to satisfy again on the Ice Explorer, and also you’re free to roam. We had about 25 minutes on the glacier, which was lots.
There’s an space roped off the place you possibly can roam freely. The ropes is likely to be annoying for pictures, however security comes first. Convey a water bottle so you possibly can style the glacier water.
Native Tip: It’s normally round 27° F (15° C) levels cooler on the glacier than on the Discovery Centre, and it’s typically windy, so pack accordingly! Jacob and Rob have been positively a lot hotter than I used to be of their sleeping bag onesies.
The Columbia Icefield Skywalk
When our time was up, the Ice Explorer took us again to the bus then we rode about 10 minutes north to the Skywalk. The glass-floor Skywalk takes you over the sting of a cliff 918 ft above the valley ground, the place you possibly can take within the views of the Canadian Rockies.
There are a number of interpretive indicators alongside the brief stroll, and if you happen to’re fascinated by studying extra concerning the historical past and geology, they’ve guided excursions too! We didn’t do the guided tour however stopped by to take a look at the bones of a Large Horn Sheep and Mountain Goats..
In contrast to different Skywalks we’ve been to, we didn’t need to put on any shoe coverings. They ask that you simply wipe them off on the mats earlier than strolling on the glass. We additionally may shoot our personal pictures and stroll at our personal tempo.
Once we have been finished, we headed again in the direction of the car parking zone, the place they’ve buses a number of instances an hour to choose up anybody completed and take them again to the Discovery Centre. You may keep as lengthy or as brief as you need!
Native Tip: This season, a household of mountain goats lives beneath the bridge. We noticed one sleeping on the cliffside.
