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Ice field in the Canadian Rockies
Photo: Carlos Delgado, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Columbia Icefield is roughly midway down the Icefields Parkway on Highway 93 in Jasper National Park within the Alberta Rockies. Jasper National Park is adjacent to the north of Banff National Park. The Columbia Icefield has several named glaciers, but the Athabasca Glacier is the main one that is accessible and most visible from the highway and visitor centre.
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Parks Canada has a Glacier Gallery Exhibit which is a self-guided tour of how glaciers move, the importance of glaciers and information about the natural history of the area.
Brewster Bus Company has a number of huge buses (Ice Explorers or Snowcoaches), which will take you out onto the Athabasca Glacier where you can walk around.
Also operated by Brewster. You are bused from the centre a kilometre or so north along the Parkway to be herded onto a see-through catwalk over the edge of the valley face. Apart from the opportunity to look down view is similar to other side of the road pull-offs.
Guided hike on the glacier.
In the Icefield Centre, it has 32 rooms available. There are low season and high season rates, with the summer months falling into the high season category when all rooms are priced in the range of $250/night.
It has 21 beds. Reservations recommended.
33 sites, tents only.
46 sites.
100 sites, for trailers and RVs only.
The only possible access for the travelling public is by the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise and Saskatchewan River Crossing from the south or from Jasper to the north.
Read in the guideThe main attraction, other than the displays in the Icefield Centre, is the walk to the toe of the glacier. It's just across the road from the centre and you can walk or drive to that parking lot.
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ItinerariesThe Icefields Parkway, also known as Highway 93 between Lake Louise and Jasper, is the primary north-south route through the Alberta Rockies in Canada, and one of the most spectacular scenic drives in the world.
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Nature & adventureWhen snow accumulates over many years, it compacts into dense ice. Glaciers form as this ice slowly but steadily slides downhill.
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Nature & adventureThe National Parks of Canada, and some of the National Historic Sites of Canada, are managed by Parks Canada, an agency of the Government of Canada.
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