The Icefields Parkway

Canada’s most spectacular mountain highway

On the western limits of Alberta, Canada, along the British Columbia border, lies 230 kilometres of continuous World Heritage Site scenery completely protected in two national parks; Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. In the unsurpassed mountain scenery paralleling the Great Divide, the Icefields Parkway traverses the rugged landscape of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, connecting Lake Louise and Jasper. Traveling by car, truck, RV, bicycle, bus, rollerblade and even unicycle, over half a million park visitors enjoy the trip between Lake Louise and Jasper each year.

In 1931, the government of Canada commissioned hundreds of men to build mountaineer AO Wheeler’s “wonder trail” through the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The men used picks, shovels and horses to hack a single-lane gravel track from Lake Louise to Jasper. While the country was at war, the “B-J” (“Banff-Jasper”) road opened quietly in 1940. With the auto-tourist boom in the 1950s and 1960s, the road was widened, paved, realigned and officially named The Icefields Parkway.

The Icefields Parkway passes within viewing distance of over 30 icefields: seven large upland glaciers and about 25 smaller, yet still notable glaciers. The largest and most famous icefield in the Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Icefield, covers 200km2. Formed from layers of snow that remain after each summer’s melt, hundreds or possibly thousands of years ago, the delicate snowflakes gradually change to hard, interlocking ice crystals, creating glaciers that give the Icefields Parkway its name.

Commemorating Canada’s powerful natural landscape, the parkway is a scenic drive, not a transportation corridor. The speed limit is leisurely, large trucks are banned and a park pass is required to drive the parkway. With so many breathtaking places to explore, visitors are encouraged to stop at any one of the many pull-offs and picnic areas along the way to enjoy sightseeing, photography, wildlife watching, walking, hiking, fishing, picnicking, horseback riding, and ice tours (at the Columbia Icefields). Points of interest explain the wildlife, geology and history of the area.

For many, the opportunity to spot wildlife in its natural habitat is a great reason for visiting the Icefields Parkway. Elk, deer, moose, mountain goats, big horn sheep, caribou and black and brown bears can be spotted along the Parkway, especially at dawn and at dusk in the spring and autumn months. Small mammals including pika, ground squirrels, hoary marmots, beavers and porcupines are abundant in the parks, as are birds such as Canadian geese, blue grouse, jays and bald eagles. Other more elusive park animals include wolves, coyotes, cougars, and wolverines. To minimize the ecological impacts of the highway, Parks Canada has created an innovative highway construction that utilizes wildlife fencing in combination with 24 crossing structures (overpasses and underpasses) to facilitate safe wildlife crossing (and increase driver safety).

Climbing from the low valleys nearly to tree line, the Parkway ascends through all three life zones in the Canadian Rockies: the meadowy, piney montane valley floor (1,000-1.500m); the thick spruce and fir forests of the subalpine zone (1500-2200m), and the treeless alpine zone (above 2,200m), which the Parkway almost attains at Bow Summit and Sunwapta Pass.



The Icefields Parkway officially begins (or ends) at the infamous Lake Louise and is unofficially divided into four sections:

Lake Louise to Bow Summit
Lake Louise is the stunning start of the Parkway and deserves a full day, or longer, visit. Known to the Stoney people as “Lake of the Little Fishes”, Lake Louise was given its present name in 1884 in honour of Louise Caroline Alberta, the sixth child of Queen Victoria. The lakeshore views are world-renowned and various hikes around the lake lead to breath-taking views of the surrounding area.
Once on the road, the first 40 kilometres of the Icefields Parkway rises increasingly north through a subalpine forest and tops out in alpine meadows at Bow Summit, the highest point on the Parkway at 2,088m above sea level. Views of the quickly retreating Crowfoot Glacier, and the glacially-fed, brilliantly turquoise Peyto Lake from Bow Summit are phenomenal.

Bow Summit to Saskatchewan Crossing
The next 37 kilometres of the Parkway plunges from Bow Summit down into a subalpine forest alongside the Mistaya River and then drops further into the montane valley bottom of the Saskatchewan River. Only ten minutes from the road, Mistaya Canyon is a popular stop. The Saskatchewan River valley offers spectacular views and the opportunity to see moose and black bears.

Saskatchewan Crossing to the Columbia Icefields
From the Crossing, the Icefields Parkway follows the Saskatchewan River and then steeply ascends towards the Icefields. This 50-kilometre section is well-known worldwide for its stunning scenery, including Mt. Athabasca, Columbia Glacier and the Columbia Icefields. Visitors should plan to spend at least an hour hiking the trails and viewing the glacier exhibits. Detailed information and tours of the glacier and icefields are available at the visitor centre.
Columbia Icefields to Jasper
The final 103 kilometres of the road climbs Tangle Ridge, then drops down into montane forest and follows the Sunwapta and Athabasca Rivers into the town of Jasper. Mountain goats, bighorn sheep and elk are common on this final trek. Favourite stops include Sunwapta Falls, the point where the Sunwapta River pours over the falls and rushes through a limestone gorge, the 23-metre high Athabasca Falls, the Kerkeslin Goat Lick.

Text and photos: Laura Markslag