Icefields Parkway December 18, 2017

I really need to put some more thought into some trips. I wanted to squeeze another trip in before the end of the year. The Icefields Parkway is Highway 93 from Lake Louise, Alberta to Jasper, Alberta. The best part of it is from Saskatchewan Crossing, the junction of Highway 93 and Highway 11, north on Highway 93 to Jasper.

The views are amazing. The highway was hard packed snow and ice over the pavement. I did not run into any bare stretches of pavement. There was a recent snowfall of up to five centimetres and large sections were not plowed. Having almost new winter tires all round made travel much better. The temperature was about -2C and clear. The main problem was that with it not being plowed in sections there was not an opportunity to stop at the side of the road and take photos. If you did you ran the risk of getting run over by someone testing out the limits of their four wheel drive truck or SUV. My 2012 KIA Rondo got me through with no problems.

Tour buses go from Jasper to the Columbia Icefields year round. The nice thing about this time of year is that there is not a lot of traffic. There are no services this time of year from Jasper to Lake Louise which is 232km. Make sure you have a full tank of gas.

This was as good as the highway got.

Lots of great views.

Wall of ice.

Somewhat plowed highway. I did pass two snowplows working in tandem going the other way on a different part of the highway. A few times I was driving in a few inches of snow.