Back in 2005, my wife and I went to Canada (I used to live there) to visit family and friends. We flew into Calgary after seeing my parents in Hamilton Ontario and hired a car to drive to Vancouver to see a couple of old friends (John and Ed). I wanted drive from Calgary to Vancouver to show my wife what I think is some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

The Icefields Parkway heads north 240 kms (about 140 miles) from Lake Louise to Jasper in Alberta Canada. Without a doubt the parkway is one of the most spectacularly beautiful drives I’ve ever be on. The beauty is almost a hazard to safe driving as it’s hard to concentrate on the road when the scenery is so stunning.

 I found myself constantly craning my neck at odd angles just to see higher up on the mountains. We decided we had to stop fairly often (which wasn’t a problem as we weren’t in a hurry) and get out of the car to enjoy the view.

About 40kms north of Lake Louise is the surreal turquoise Peyto lake that looks so fake in photographs that hardly anyone will believe that a natural lake could so be such a vivid colour.

The only other lake that I’ve seen that is even more colourful is Moraine Lake (also in Alberta).

As my wife and I travelled further north we saw a bunch of cars parked by the side of the road and people were getting out of their cars to take photos, so we stopped to see what was so interesting.  About 20 meters (about 60 feet) from the roadside was an elk lying down in the scrub.

I was amazed at how close it let people get to it. Only my concern for my safety stopped me from getting closer than I did. Elks are big and I knew there would be no contest between me and it, if it freaked out and I was in the way.

We only travelled a total of about 135kms north on the Icefields Parkway because we only wanted to go as far as the Columbia Icefields. We were heading to Vancouver later, which is in the opposite direction. The icefields are over 200sq kms of ice cap that has glaciers all around it’s perimeter.

 What’s really amazing is how far, in the last 120 years, the glaciers have receded. The foot of the glacier used to be at the point where the photo above was taken.