The 230-kilometre Icefields Parkway, running between Jasper and Lake Louise, ranks among the great highroads of the world and commands some of the most majestic scenery in the Canadian Rockies. The Parkway follows the Bow, Mistaya, North Saskatchewan, Sunwapta and Athabasca rivers, crossing the Bow and Sunwapta passes and presenting a panorama of peaks, glaciers, waterfalls and canyons.
Once part of the vast ice sheet that covered most of Canada for more than a million years, the Columbia Icefield is the largest accumulation of ice in the Rocky Mountains. It blankets an area of nearly 300 square kilometres to depths of 900 metres. The most accessible of the many glaciers that jut from the main body of the icefield is the Athabasca Glacier, which can be reached from the Icefields Parkway. Tours on the glacier give visitors a close look at mill holes (deep, circular depressions) and crevasses (long, nearly vertical fissures).
Keep your eyes peeled for Bow Summit, which at 2,068 m (6,785 ft.) above sea level, is the highest point on the parkway and offers one of the best mountain panoramas in the world at Peyto Lake viewpoint. Johnston Canyon and Vermillion Lake, closer to Banff, are great places to stop and snap some photos.
The Icefield Parkway ends in the picturesque village of Lake Louise. Continue east along the highway and you will soon enter the town of Banff, which is a year-round recreation center for tourists, horseback riders, skiers, hikers and mountain climbers.
Banff is the headquarters for the Banff National Park, which is the first and most famous of Canada's national parks with an incomparable combination of towering peaks and high meadows, emerald lakes and keen mountain air.
A must-visit is Sulphur Mountain, one of Banff's most popular attractions is the Banff Gondola here. The ride offers a sweeping panorama of mountains and valleys. If you’d like to brush up on some history, head to Banff Natural History Museum where specimens of wildlife native to Banff National Park are displayed. And, at Luxton Museum, First Nations lore and customs are shown in dioramas at the museum, which is built to resemble a 19th-century fur-trade post.
If you're looking for something to do in the evening, a stroll through Banff's downtown area is a good idea, as the shops are open late and restaurants are plentiful. The Parks Canada campground at Tunnel Mountain is the most convenient campground to use as a base for exploring Banff.
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