Canada Mt. Athabasca

The drive from Lake Louise to Jasper on Canada’s Icefields Parkway (93) is about 145 miles (230 km) and is about a 3 hour drive if you don’t stop along the way. Of course that is virtually impossible for anyone with a camera. This shot is typical of the scenery for almost the entire drive. In my opinion, this is the most spectacular drive in North America. I’ve driven the road many times. There are dozens of stops you’ll want to make along the way. A quick online search will reveal numerous charts/lists of the many attractions accessed along the beautiful highway, most of which are immediately off the highway.

I recommend not using the high tech super sophisticated Jeep Grand Cherokee windshield filter like I did for this shot but it was raining pretty hard at the time. The road itself is beautifully constructed and maintained and has wide shoulders for most of the way but I think parking on the side of the road just for pictures is frowned upon. There are numerous pullouts for that purpose but I guess they can’t build them every mile. Thus, the “through the windshield technique”. On this day, the weather was less than ideal but the scenery was no less dramatic.

This shot was taken from the southbound lane a few miles north of the Columbia Icefield Discovery Center.