Icefields Parkway, Alberta, Canada: C'est Magnifique!!

Canada has two official languages, English and French. Unfortunately, Philip has taken this to heart and generally speaks in English, but with a swarmy French accent (think: Pepé Le Pew after a two-day bender). But I won't let this dampen my enthusiasm for our beautiful neighbor to the north!

As we drive the 144-mile, world-renowed Icefields Parkway, I understand why National Geographic notes this as a "drive-of-a-lifetime and one of the world's most spectacular driving tours." We are dumbstruck at the natural beauty all around!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just deposit a bunch of jaw-dropping photos **here** and let them speak their million-gazillion-trabillion words for themselves! (Worth noting, I don't have a big fancy DSLR camera, just a point-and-shoot, AND the day we drove, it was overcast. That's JUST how gorgeous this drive truly is!)

The otherworldly, vivid blue-green color of the rivers and lakes in the Canadian Rockies is due to what is called "glacial flour," Basically, this is crushed rock that the slowly-moving glaciers have ground down to a fine powder (like baking flour), which becomes suspended in the water and creates vivid blues and green, particularly in the sunlight. /end science lesson/

The Icefields Parkway has over 100 ancient glaciers, many visible from the road. This is Crowfoot Glacier, which had 3 toes when it was named, but 1 one of them has disappeared over time, and the second toe is slowly melting, too.  (More about glaciers later in this post.)

  

The roads are wide open and everyone is driving slowly, oohing and aahing along the way.  Canadian rental RV's are our most abundant road-mates, but few from the U.S.  Visitors in this area are from all around the world, and English-speakers are the minority, it seems.

Around every corner is a new and different view of amazing sights.

Here is just a small representation of the hundreds of amazing photos we gathered in just a few short hours.

The Icefields Parkway is the prettiest part of Highway 93, which extends north all the way to Jasper National Park, our next destination and "Mile Zero of Hwy-93."  Surprisingly, Hwy-93 ends in Wickenburg, AZ, which seems a very long way and a world apart from this!  

 Numerous wildlife crossings ensure the safety of the critters AND the motorists! 

A must-do is to step aboard the Athabasca Glacier.  See the little dark speck in the middle of the big snowy blob?  That's where we're going!

A walk on the glacier requires a ride on one of these snowcats.  There are only 23 in the world and 22 of them are here (the other 1 somehow inexplicably ended up at a military base in Antartica).  They cost $1.3 million each, and the tires alone are worth $20,000!

Once on the glacier, you notice something immediately.  Frick!  It's COLD out here!

Philip takes a taste of the pure, frosty glacial water.  Over 75% of the world's fresh water supply comes from melting glaciers.

The barren beauty is awe-inspiring.  The Athabasca Glacier is part of a huge icefield that is the size of 100 of New York City's Central Park and up to 300 feet thick!

Another worthwhile stop on the Icefields Parkway is the Glacier Skywalk, a glass-bottomed observation platform that is 918 feet above the river below.  I have no fear of heights, but plenty of people (ahem, Philip) needed some gentle coaxing to take that first step out!

The Lucky Charm's first international foray was celebrated with an addition to our sticker map on the back of the RV.

We're slowly getting used to all things Canadian, including metric conversions and their weird money.  Their paper money is terrifically high tech (with a clear panel containing holographic images), they don't use pennies (everything is rounded up), and don't have a dollar bill.  Rather, it's a dollar coin (called a "loonie") and there is a also a two-dollar coin (called a "toonie").  What this all means, is that you can buy a pack of gum, hand over a $5 bill, and get all coins in return.  Your trip to the Coinstar machine with a quart-ziplock bag of coins would net you maybe $50 in America but $1,000 in Canada.

Having traveled the Icefields Parkway, we've arrived at Jasper National Park, our furthest stop at 1,657 miles north of home.  In our next blog post, we'll show you some local wildlife (grizzly, anyone?) and take a trip to the top of Whistlers Mountain, where we are stranded in the tram station for a few hours by a sudden ice storm!  The Lucky Charm travels on!  

Canada OH Canada! But First, We're Going To The Sun

Last stop USA ... Whitefish, Montana.  Dear friends and Whitefish residents Kurt and Susan Blades were happy to abandon all work and responsibilities on our behalf!  Chilly Glacier National Park was the perfect antidote to city living and sweaty armpits.

Going-To-The-Sun Road is the "main drag" through Glacier, 32 miles of going up up up, then down down down from the highest point, all the way across the park.  We biked 8 miles up and 8 back down before my poor pathetic city-slicker thighs seized up in a permanent, glacier-sized cramp.   

For just a month or so in late spring, the road is closed to automobiles (while they are working to clear all the snow) but open to bicyclists, meaning 100% of the road was ours!  How could we resist?

Beautiful sights abounded, and I don't just mean Philip and Kurt!

The tunnel was the last major landmark before our destination, eight miles in and mostly uphill!  Whew!  Also ... a pic-a-nic LUNCH!  Carbo-loading without guilt.

Glacier is huge, and our schedule was tight, but being "up close and personal" on two wheels was the best possible way to feel AT ONE with Glacier for the short time we were there!

AND THEN -- CANADA CROSSING!

As we crossed into Canada, I was NERVOUS!  I'd read on the Internet all the crazy restrictions the Canadians had, and that they wouldn't hesitate to pull you aside and rip your RV apart looking for all the good contraband.  Raw chicken.  Eggs.  Citrus.  Certain vegetables (but nowhere did it specify which ones.)  Alcohol.  Tobacco products.  Dog food must be in its original packaging.  Full pet records and actual rabies certificates must be immediately available.  And most importantly, no firearms.  I'd heard that they would ask over and over, multiple times and multiple ways, if we had any weapons, trying to trick us into cracking and handing over our AK-47's.

Of course, they hardly asked about any of these things for which I had carefully prepared (and tossed a bunch of stuff) and lain awake worrying all night.  (Also, there may have been a stash of cocktail fixin's that a certain somebody was unwilling to part with.  I was fully resigned to going to Canadian prison because Philip didn't think citrus vodka was a "thing" we could find in Canada.)  They didn't even want to see our (adorable) pets.  I'd given them a bath and everything!  Sheesh!

 The beauty of the Canadian Rockies was all around us!

The small town of Radium Hot Springs was our first stopover.  The local Radium Woodcarver has a very, um, interesting treehouse from which he sells his carvings, "when he feels like opening," that is.

The nearby Koontenay National Park contains the Radium Hot Springs natural mineral pools for which the town is named.  

In 1890, an Englishman purchased the hot springs for $160 with plans to bottle and sell the mineral water as a miracle tonic, not having first thought of the pet rock or the chia pet.  Here's what it looked like back then ....

.... and here's what it looks like in 2016!  Same type of rugged dudes still frequent the place!

There are three hot springs up here (in Koontenay, Jasper and Banff National Parks) and we're going to try them all.

Radium Hot Springs was full of charm and Canadians are soooooo friendly.  Maybe a little too friendly.  It's disconcerting.  "Can I help you hook up your Jeep?"  "Would you like me to level your RV for you?"  "Can I throw away that soda can you are currently drinking from?  Oh still drinking? I'll wait!"  But their good cheer and open hearts are growing on us quickly.

We were super excited to note Canadian gas prices, until we realized that price was in LITRES, not gallons.  ~Doh!~

The national Canadian sport of Wildlife Spotting started right away, with a herd of frisky rams right outside our RV campground.

French is the national language in this part of Canada, and everyone greets each other by smashing together the salutations, which becomes one single word "Hellobonjour."  Grocery shopping is entertaining and we feel wayyyy more worldly buying a box of "p'tite abeille gaufrettes" than plain ole graham crackers. 

But French or English, everyone speaks the language of sassy wine labels.

Next, we journey to the farthest northern point of our journey, Jasper National Park, 1,657 miles away and a world apart from Phoenix!  We'll be driving the famous Icefields Parkway to get there, one of the absolute most scenic drives in all the world.  (Also lots of potholes.  The clocks will all vibrate off the RV walls in the first 10 minutes.) The Lucky Charm will be coming at you next with lots of pretty pic-a-tures, guaranteed!