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“The drive is indescribable” |
Highway 11, also known as the David Thompson Trail in honor of one of the great explorers and map makers of Canada, moves west from Highway 2 at Red Deer past Rocky Mountain House into the Rocky Mountains and the valley of the Bow River.
Soon after we moved into the evergreen forests west of Rocky Mountain House, Craig pointed to the right and said, "There's a bear." It was a young black bear on the side of the road, frozen with one paw raised as it watched us driving by, not sure if we were a threat or not. We kept driving, because black bears are powerful animals that mind their business, if you mind yours. It crossed the road soon after we passed and the car behind us slowed down to let it. Later we saw deer, and what may or may not have been wild horses. We thought it was more likely that the horses were farm stock that was being allowed to roam freely. We'd like to think they were wild. For sure they were at the side of the road and there was no fence to stop them from going anywhere they wanted and nobody around to give them orders.
The farther we drove the more stunning was the scenery, and every curve in the highway revealed another incredible view.
The area west of the first range of mountains is set aside as a park and nature preserve and is part of either Banff National Park or Jasper National Park. Highway Eleven joins Highway 93 in the Bow River Valley. We turned north to see the Columbia Ice Field.
What is probably most striking about the ice fields is that the Athabaska Glacier, created by the combination of separate glaciers that have formed on the slopes of the nearby mountains, is melting rapidly. Every ten years on its backward melt has been marked by signs at the side of the trail as you climb up towards the glacier -- a striking example of global warming. You will be struck at how far back the ice has been retreating every ten years in the last few decades. When you reach the edge of the ice, you encounter slush. Yet this is a vast glacier, for as you look up at the special buses that travel out on the ice they are tiny specks that at first you can hardly make out. Bring warm clothes, with a hood. Do not attempt walking up to the glacier in sandals and shorts, like one couple tried when we were there. The man was marching ahead and the woman followed grumpily, with her private thoughts about male machismo. Read the warnings on the side of the trail, and take them seriously.
The drive back south towards Banff is really indescribable. The mountains are vast and beautiful and just keep going on, mile after mile. You will find your own sights, but look on the east side of the highway for a sheer wall that is perhaps a thousand feet high, maybe higher, with six tiny threads of waterfalls misting their way down to the valley towards you. Look at the mountain peaks and examine the flat beds of rock that have been bent and wrenched into curves, or observe more tortured forms along on the sides of the mountains. The rocks you see used to be flat beds of mud or other forms of silt at the bottom of ancient seas. Millions of years ago this silt became rock, was lifted bent and twisted. Consider that all these vast structures have been formed a two-hours drive to the west of perfectly flat prairie lands, as if the western edge of the whole flat blanket of land has been bent upwards by a giant hand and the ragged border chopped off into mountain tops.
Banff is a lovely village something like a Swiss ski resort. Stay at one of the hotels here and enjoy Sunday Brunch at the Banff Springs Hotel.
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