Canadian Rockies: Icefields Parkway

Icefields Parkway is a two-lane, paved highway paralleling the Continental Divide for 140 miles from Jasper (in the north) to Highway 1 (in the south, on which you can either drive west to Yoho National Park or east to Lake Louise and Banff National Park.  A Canadian National Parks permit is required for the drive.  Most places have a speed limit of 90 km/hour --  rarely a problem due to the abundance of landscape and wildlife views.

Links:
https://icefieldsparkway.com
http://www.icefieldsparkway.ca/Travel_Cards.pdf
http://banffandbeyond.com/attractions-along-the-icefields-parkway/




The parkway is aptly named for the glaciers and and icefields above.  The Columbia Icefield, which is 125 square miles in area and up to 1200 feet deep (according to Wikipedia), feeds eight major glaciers and includes some of the highest mountains in the Canadian Rockies, many towering
near 12,000 feet.

In July and August, the busiest months, up to 100,000 vehicles per month compete for these views, highway, and parking space.  Since most of these vehicles are busses, holding dozens of tourists, the actual number of summer visitors is astounding, and the parking lots can be buzzing.  Luckily, relatively few of these tourists actually venture beyond the parking lots, simply stepping off of their bus to snap a photo and check a sight off of their lists.  We were able to escape the crowds and explore the area at several sites, going beyond the parking lots.


Unlike the tour buses, we did not complete even a one-way trip in a day.  In fact, we didn't finish in even two days.  Our first campground in the Icefields Parkway was Wilcox.  The campground was full but for one campsite -- the one designated as a wheelchair campsite.  There was a small written
notice requesting that only campers with wheelchairs occupy this site.  Only in Canada would that request have been honored!  But it was!  So, we took the site, and we swatted bugs as we quickly set up our tent.  Despite the fact that I needed to use my all-terrain wheelchair in order to wade through the loose gravel surrounding the nearby "disabled" outhouse, the existence and availability of these things was an unexpected convenience.



The next night, our camping luck finally ran out, and we joined the many similarly luckless and
siteless campers in the parking lot of Mosquito Creek . We celebrated Ted's birthday with pecan tartlets, eating dinner in the dirt parking lot between the car and the tent.  The next day we finished our jaunt down the Icefields Parkway.


The following is a list of most highlights -- from north to south -- on the Icefields Parkway, along with descriptions, photos, and notes about accessibility

* Valley of the Five Lakes

We didn’t stop for this hike.  A ranger said she'd heard of someone in a wheelchair getting up to the second lake, but no farther.

Athabasca Falls --
accessible till it's not!

Athabasca Falls

* Athabasca Falls

Water tumbling through carved rock pathways. A small, paved hill leads from the car parking lot to the paths, so wheelchairs either need strength or an assist getting up.  You could also park in the lower, bus parking area.  The first lookout is accessible via a paved path, but the second lookout is not, due to steps.

*Goats and Glaciers

Lookout into mountains, glaciers, river. Maybe goats.  Short paved path from car to view. Short hill.

*Sunwapta Falls

Missed it.  Read you could take wheelchair to lower, but not upper, falls.

*Mushroom and Diadem Peaks Lookout

Roadside pull out with views of mountains, glacier.

Stutfield Glacier

*Beauty Creek.  

Hike. Didn't go, but ranger said it might be good.

*Stutfield Glacier. 

Roadside pull out with views of mountain and glacier.

Angled viewpoint at Tangle Falls

*Tangle falls

Wide water falls on the east side of the  highway. Parking lots are on the west side of the  highway, with a disabled spot near the out houses on a dirt, upper lot.

*Icefield Center

Center with a restaurant, hotel, a view of Athabasca Glacier from the porch, wifi for all, bathrooms, a trailhead to hike to the glacier, a tour on big trucks that drive onto glacier, a tour that you can walk to overhang with glass bottom a thousand feet above ground, and tons of people.  Didn’t go on any tours, but read that the glacier trucks are wheelchair accessible. Bathrooms are kind of accessible. (One large designated family and accessible stall is separate, but has no grab bars. In large women's room, there is one large stall,  but grab bars either run into toilet paper holders or else are out of reach on wall very far away from toilet.)

Icefields Centre with view of Athabasca Glacier

Athabasca Glacier

Athabasca Glacier

*Bridal Veil Falls

Overlook at highway pull out 

*Canyon with Waterfall and gushing waterfall

We tried, without success to find the name of this unmarked pull-out on the west side of the highway.  A gushing waterfall jumps out of the rocks of the cliff is above you to the south. In the distance, across a field of rocks, is a canyon carved by a stream.  If you can get across the rockfield, there are beautiful views of the canyon edge, but you must climb a steep and narrow cliff to reach the view of the small waterfall beyond.  

*Peyto Lake Overlook

Short hike to overlook with view of valley far below, with bright blue lake and mountains with glaciers.  The hike goes on a short but steep paved trail from the upper parking lot with buses and handicapped parking (you can reach it from the lower car parking lot as well, but that requires more hills). 

*Bow Summit 

At the same parking lot and trail, past the turn-off to the Peyto Lake Overlook is short interpretive trail, paved but with roots and very steep.  After a little way, you meet up with an old fire road and eventually a dirt trail (both of which are very steep for a wheelchair), carrying you past snowfields, marmots, and wildflowers galore, up into mosquitoes and flies, views of mountains and glaciers, Bow Summit, and Bow Lake.

Next stop Banff and a hotel with a bed and a shower!

Canadian Rockies: Jasper National Park

Japer National Park

Welcome to Canada!

Map of Jasper NP

Snaring River

I flew into Calgary to meet Ted (he had been backpacking in the Kootenays for several days), and we drove north, then west, starting our camping trip in Jasper National Park.  The first night, we camped at Snaring River, where the only sites available were a couple of walk-in sites.  We grabbed one and used my wheelchair to help carry the large and heavy car camping gear. After several trips down a medium-packed gravel path, we ended up enjoying what was probably our best – most private and best view, not far from a flowing river – campsite of the trip.  We camped here for a night and then set off down the highway.  The following blogs provide a recounting of the sights, sites, and trails we experienced or heard about during our 10-day trip from north to south to west.

Roll-in camping

Walk-in camping (wheelchair style)

Maligne Canyon

Maligne Canyon: To the north of the Maligne Lake, the Maligne River forms Maligne Canyon.  It is only accessible to a point, and it is full of crowds, but it is worth a stop to see the beginning of the canyon. And definitely worth a stop for the milkshakes!

Maligne Canyon

Milkshake at Maligne Canyon

Medicine Lake: On the way from the canyon to the lake, you pass a picturesque lake, which is actually a valley that fills up with meltwater each summer, after which the water drains through the karst lake-bed to an underground river, disappearing every year.  There is a pull-out at the north end of the lake for viewing.

Maligne Lake

Young eagle at Maligne Lake

Maligne Lake: The view of the lake was beautiful, but we couldn’t see the surrounding mountains because of the smoke from nearby forest fires (one of the forest service staff said the fire was not actually in the park boundaries, but he had his backpack packed, just in case).  However, I have seen pictures of the view taken on a clear day, and it is fantastic.  

Maligne Lake

West side of Maligne Lake

We made the mistake of trying the lakeside trail on the west side of the lake.  The trail was wide enough for a wheelchair and the scenery was beautiful, but the trail was so full of large roots that it was no fun, and at some point it even forced us to turn around.  

Mary Schaeffer Loop , a two mile trail on the east side is supposedly paved and accessible.  We meant to go there, but after bad directions (on our part), we had battled the roots on the west side and were too tired to try the east side.

I also heard that the 6.5 mile (return) Bald Hills trail out of Maligne Lake was accessible in that it was up an old fire road, but not very accessible in that it was always uphill.  I was advised to at least try to go to the old hitching post, if not top of hill, where first glimpse of view was.  Unfortunately, by the time we got these tips, it was too late in the day for us to try. We got this advice from an employee of the resort, after trying unsuccessfully to find out similar information from various rangers.  

The Maligne Lake Resort itself was barely accessible and the outhouses around it were pretty non-accessible.  The resort employee told us that this issue had come up many times over the past several years during their talks with park officials, so park officials definitely knew about and acknowledged the problem.  Yet, nothing was ever done to improve it.

Beaver/Summit/Jacques Lakes trail: At the north end of Maligne Lake is an old fire road that goes for 1 mile to Beaver Lake and then 1.5 miles more to Summit Lake, before continuing as a hiking trail to Jacques Lake.  Because the trail to Beaver and Summit Lakes is a fire road with minimal elevation gain, it may be appropriate for wheelchairs; on the other hand, it may be too rooty or muddy.

Jasper: The public washroom across from the information center in Jasper town is accessible, as is the nearby outhouse at Palisades.

Jasper SkyTram:  We didn't go up, but according to the website, the tram itself is wheelchair accessible, the upper terminal with a restaurant is mostly wheelchair accessible (not the second floor), and the1.2 km trail from the upper terminal to the summit is a dirt path.

Pyramid Lake

Pyramid Lake Island:  This hike was one of my favorites – beautiful views, great trail, and a baby elk!  The island is reached by a wooden bridge leading from a parking lot about ½ mile from the Pyramid Lake Resort.  There you’ll find a short path of hard-packed dirt around the island, passing by a couple of viewpoints over the water to mountains.  As an extra bonus, the elk frequent the water at morning and  evening.  During our visit, a small herd went into the water off of the mainland.  Later, a mother and her spotted baby crossed the wooden bridge over to island.  Once the other annoying camera-snapping tourists left, we just hung out with them (or they with us) while we stared at a windsurfer sail beneath Mt Edith Cavell.

Elk bathing in Pyramid Lake

Bridge across Pyramid Lake to PL Island

Pyramid Lake Island trail

Mother and baby elk keeping us company on Pyramid Lake Island

Windsurfer and Mt Edith Cavell at Pyramid Lake

Lake Annette trail

Lake Annette

Lake Annette:  Lake Annette loop trail is a paved, designated wheelchair-accessible trail around the lake.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to try it out.

Mt Edith Cavell glacier

Mount Edith Cavell:   Because of construction, the road up to Mount Edith Cavell was by permit only.  We managed to get a permit, and we found a parking space an the general lot.  However, the trail was too narrow, steep, and rocky to get very far up with a wheelchair, so it might be better to admire the glacier from the parking lot area.

Mt Edith Cavell glacier

Mt Edith Cavell glacier

Crowds at Mt Edith Cavell

Trail to Mt Edith Cavell glacier

Trail to Mt Edith Cavell glacier

Next post: The Canadian Rockies journey continues down the  Icefields Parkway

Canadian Rockies

The Canadian Rockies are absolutely stunning: The drive from Jasper down to Banff passes through mountains, glaciers, colorful rocks and lakes, meadows exploding with wildflowers, and wildlife.  

Lake Louise

Icefields Parkway

Bow Lake

This flower grows like a weed,
especially in areas recently
cleared by fire.
What could it be called?

Not just rocks -- marmots!

Moraine Lake

Taken from inside the car!

Wheelchair placard --
yet notice the raised entry
and loose gravel

Still, despite the glorious scenery, perhaps my most prominent memory was that of the search for an accessible restroom – pardon me, Canadians – washroom.  Actually, in the national parks, most of the washrooms are outhouses.  Based on my travels, outhouses in lower BC are very accessible; Alberta not so much.  And even those outhouses displaying accessible signs were often only teasing.

In the parks, most outhouses sat on 3-6 inch high concrete pads, but had no ramps to get up.  Many were surrounded by loose gravel, which devoured most wheelchairs.  Sometimes there was even a step up from the concrete pad to the outhouse itself.  Many of the outhouses were too small to fit a wheelchair anyway.  And seldom was an outhouse fitted with any grab bars.  Finding a truly accessible outhouse was a rare occurrence, and I often planned my day around outhouse possibilities.

Hikers at Edith Cavell Glacier

(Planning ahead would have been good)

Due to latitude and altitude, the parks are reliably snow-free only for a short period each year, so in July and August the roads are crawling with hundreds of buses and thousands of tourists every day, while the campgrounds are teeming with lucky campers who reserved ahead and the hopeful masses who had not (guess which we were).  Getting away from the people and also getting into a campsite meant, by necessity, creativity, flexibility, and luck.  For example, with the help of my wheelchair as a cart, we enjoyed three nights at walk-in campsites – keep in mind that our camping gear is NOT walk-in suitable (4-person car-camping tent, two-person cot that’s as heavy as a tank, privacy tent with commode, and other large and heavy car-camping gear).  One night the only site available was one designated wheelchair site (perhaps only in Canada would people have respected that designation and left it free).  And there was one night with absolutely nothing available, so we joined many other campers in a campground parking lot.  

Turning obstacles into adventures:
"Walk-in" camping with a wheelchair
and wheelchair -sized camping equipment
(that's our tent)!

Crowds and outhouses aside, we spent a wonderful week in the Canadian Rockies, with many happy memories.  The scenery is indeed stupendous, and there are in fact a good deal of accessible sights and activities.  We started in Jasper National Park and then drove down the Icefields Parkway to Banff.  We ended with a visit to Lake Louise and a stay in Yoho National Park, before a too long day of driving back to Seattle through the acrid smoke of the British Columbian forest fires.  As usual, I wasn’t able to compile my notes until much later, making all statements subject to a suspect memory!  Details to follow.