Icefields Parkway

I've always thought my parents should teach a course in camping.  They really are the consumate pros.  You really gain an appreciation for it when you see them break down a campsite.  Their routine is amazing - quick, clean and efficient.  The only problem was that, before we knew it, it was time to get in separate cars and go separate ways.  Fiona and I were heading down the Icefields Parkway through Banff to see friends in Calgary.  Hanneke and Jul were heading back to Edmonton in their own car.  Linda and Dad were heading home a little more quickly so that they could pick up their registration for the 10km race they were doing the next day.  Their cheering section, Mom, Mark and Adele, went with them.

So it was still morning when we found ourselves alone and traveling through the mountains, like we used to do when we were crazy kids, just out of school and living in Calgary.  In fact as we drove a nice, sunny Icefields Parkway, we reminisced about the time we came up the other way in the middle of winter.  We were driving our old Honda Civic hatchback, it was very, very dark and snowing very, very hard.  I think back and wonder why the road was actually open.  I think we only saw 4 or 5 people the entire 5 hour drive and in places the snow was piled so high on the side of the road that we couldn't see road signs 3 or 4 metres high.  It was incredibly scary.  This was better.

We stopped at the Athabasca Falls, another standard tourist trap to let photog Fiona do her thing.  She got some really good shots of the falls, including one with an inukshuk that someone had precariously placed nearby - that one's for you Linda.  Unfortunately, upon returning to the car she stumbled and made the completely valid choice to save her pretty face over the camera, and the casing holding the lens snapped off when it hit the ground.  We were devastated, thinking that we would get no more pictures for the duration of the trip.  But Fiona pulled it together and set up a field repair station at the side of the road.  Doing her best MacGyver impersonation she put the camera back together again using only her wits and men's manicure set.  What a lady!

The rest of the trip was a series of scenic high points.    The Unending Range, stretching along the highway, the glaciers, Columbia and Athabasca, receding into the mountain, and lakes so blue-green as to defy the imagination.  Considering how long it had been, and how long it might be before we see the Rockies again, I'm glad we got them at their best and that we got a good long, unhurried drive to enjoy them on.

We pulled into Ryan and Jenni's in the late afternoon ready to replace the majestic mountains with the hustle and bustle of constantly growing Calgary.