Banff trip--Day 4

On Tuesday, we spent the morning in Banff before driving up the Icefields Parkway.  Some of our favorite stops were:

*Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint

*Bow Lake Viewpoint

*Peyto Lake lookout (short hike from parking lot with amazing views)

*Waterfowl Lakes Viewpoint

*Mistaya Canyon (short was from parking lot with a very cool river...definitely could have brought a picnic here)

*Saskatchewan Crossing (had our picnic here and got very expensive full-service gas; checked out the small gift shop)

*Weeping Wall (small waterfalls off the side of the road)

*Big Hill/Big Bend (roadside stop after a big curve and uphill--waterfall view)

I found a great website that told us about all of these stops (15 Best Stops on the Icefields Parkway you can visit in 1 day!)

The Columbia Icefields was our main stop--we got there early, so we explored the Discovery Centre and gift shop, then got changed into warm clothes (pants/sweatshirts/jackets).  We took a bus ride up to the ice-explorer vehicles that took us out on the glacier.  It was a very cool experience!  The temperatures were much cooler than down below, and the girls were wishing they had brought their sunglasses and hats.  My dad regretted not wearing his hiking boots and bringing his hiking poles, as it was slippery.  We had about 25 minutes on Athabasca Glacier--we took pictures, walked around, and filled up our water bottles with glacier water.  On our way back down on the ice explorer vehicle, we saw a bighorn sheep.

When we got back to the bus, it took us to the Skywalk.  Norah and I walked around quickly without looking down (the floor was made of glass).  Abby would only take one step out onto it, but my dad and Dave enjoyed walking around and taking pictures.

The car ride back to our place in Canmore was about 2 1/2 hours--we saw a couple of black bears by the side of the road.  We had a late supper and the girls had time to feed the bunnies before bed.