What time is it there?!

The odd thing about driving in the big parks is that you seem to be able to drive for miles without seeing any traffic, but as soon as you arrive at a viewpoint or attraction there are dozens of cars there.

The Colombia Icefield was no exception, when we arrived at around lunchtime we discovered that most of the coach parties we’d seen during the morning had already arrived. Inside was semi-organised chaos, queues for the restaurants were out of the door and down the stairs, and the rest of the place was full of people wandering around aimlessly. All of this is one week before the end of the season, so it must get pretty bad in the summer.

What all of these people were waiting for, was for their turn to be taken up to walk around on top of the glacier, and it’s well worth the wait....despite the cold and blizzards!

After the magic of the glacier, there was more spectacular scenery and some elk to welcome us into Jasper. This was a lovely little town, still some shops geared to tourists as there were in Banff, but somehow it seemed more like a real town and for some reason it didn’t seem to be on the Japanese tour bus route. On the whole, a much nicer feel. We had a great little room with our own kitchen which meant that we could re-acquaint ourselves with home cooking once again which was a nice change from pizza!