Silverhorn Creek Campground, Alberta, Canada
Icefield Parkway
Back on the beautiful icefield Parkway
– even we drove here before, there are a few stops we need to make, some repeats
and some new.
Athabasca Falls
We stopped here before but as the
falls were so impressive – Gine said we stop here again. Pulling in we found a
campsite and then we walked along the racing river to the different viewpoints
of the falls – I think there is more water this year and the mist is higher –
they are impressive like always (and the pathways are partly flooded too). We
also walked down to the Canyon with the super cool rock walls and enjoyed the
view from here.
- The Athabasca River links the freshwater ice of the Columbia Icefield to the Arctic Ocean: via the Slave Lake and down the Mackenzie River – this is 6200 km from here (by the way we did it in Reverse instead from the Rocky Mountains to the Arctic we drove from the Arctic to the Rockies)
- “Here in the fury of sound and spray, the power of roaring water and a trembling earth meet. Echos of timeless battle assault our senses”
- Since the last ice age 10.000 years ago the Athabasca River battled the earth here – you can see abandoned channels and potholes that is where it once went through
We stop to enjoy the views
As we head down the highway – we
decided to stop here, as this is a stop where you have a view already when you
stop … as we can’t stop on every viewpoint, hopefully we hit some we haven’t
before. Yes, these mountains are so beautiful but also the amazing river. The
mountains which look like they are folded up in the air look amazing – especially
with the sun glittering on them.
Rain drops at Sunwapta Falls
As we pull into this parking lot –
which was fairly full, but then we did find a spot it started to drizzle, but
today we only wanted to see the main falls, we walked over the bridge and down
closer to the river where you can also see nicely on that little island in the
middle of the river.
We stop at the Tangle Falls
As we continue down to enjoy the views
on the mountains the raindrops are coming harder – before pulling into the
parking lot we had an amazing view on the sun-lit mountains – now they are in
the clouds. Still the drive is beautiful – especially seeing the wide riverbed.
We did a quick stop at the Stutfield Glacier (even you couldn’t see the glacier)
the view on the river is still super cool. Then came the stop for the Tangle
falls and we thought they are the ones on the far side when we suddenly saw
them on the left-hand side of the road: so emergency stop and we admired those
beautiful waterfalls which are actually several different waterfalls and
scramble a bit around them.
With the tourists at the icefield
center
Already as we approach, we can see
more glaciers and the weather looks super cold!!! – and yes we remember that it
was freaking cold the last time we were here. At the moment we can’t even see
all the mountain tops and glaciers. Walking up to the info center it is amazing
to look down on the parking lot full of vehicles – it is like a zoo
We went down into the Glacier center
from Parks Canada – Paul was faster than Gine, as I think he was not so
interested as we were here before too:
- Where water goes, life follows. Life is water and so is the earth
- We looked at the map of the snow dome from where the water goes into three different directions: they have the three different watersheds outlined in three different colors: and we followed the large Mackenzie drainage to the Arctic (which is also the largest one)
- We see the display on how the temperatures here in Jasper and Columbia icefield slowly rise since the 1950s and we can see on how slowly the Columbia icefield goes back: the Arctic sea ice declines and we learned that since 1994 the world’s glaciers have lost about 400 Bill tons of ice
- We also learned that the last growing of the Columbia icefield was in the last little ice-age the Cavell Advance with its peak in 1844 (yes that is when the Athabasca Glacier was all the way to todays Info center)
The whole building is one gigantic
tourist zoo – even the cafeteria has a super long waiting line… we decided to
many people for us – but before leaving the parking lot we drove around the
“Camping lot” to check out the different RV’s – so that we know what will be
our favourite.
Coffee at the Sunwapta Lake
Gine said we are not having coffee
here we will have coffee at the Sunwapta Glacier lake – and see there we found
the perfect parking spot. We made coffee and then walked a bit along the greeny
glacier lake – and as we walk around the sun comes out – perfect!!! We can see
the mountains and it even feels warm – Gine said she has to walk up the Moraine
for a nice view on the Glacier and the mountains in the sun: going up some
super cool mountain and rock moraine views – and the sparkling sun over the
glacier – I love the mountains and the ice. Coming back Paul found the perfect
spot near a little hut in the sun protected from the wind, here it is so warm
we even have to take off our jackets!!! Now we can see all the mountains with
some blue sky – and all is sparkling – perfect to head down the highway again.
We did have to stop one more time as the view on the glacier was so cool!!!
A stop at the “blue river gorge”
The next part was through lots of
rocky mountains and as we go downhill and around the bend, we see a parking
spot with a river going back: we stop and decided to walk back to the gorge
with an amazing view on a super huge waterfall in the mountain – along the blue
turquois river and at the end the river rushes out from a gorge – so cool, now
that was a super cool little side trip – so much fun. And now we head for the
last part of our todays trip – through more mountains, coming by the weeping
wall (where the water comes out of the rock) and no we didn’t stop there today
we did it last time. I may should mention with the sun coming partly out we had
some amazing light on the mountains and the forest – it was so super cool.
Which campsite is available at the
Silverhorn Creek
and it was 5.30 once we arrived at the
campsite – as beautiful as we have it in memory. Mmmhhh all the sites have a
red reserved tag – but nearly all the sites were empty – so what is going on???
We pull into a site close to the creek and check it out (with Mandy – as she loves
walking on the leash), then we walk around the campsite and also discover that
there is a Reservation board, we write down all the numbers and discover the
site we are in is “supposedly” reserved for tonight, so we move to another site
– no big deal.
From this beautiful campsite you have
open views on the mountains all around you and they even have some red chairs
here – perfect, yes we do need a picture (we have to check if we made one here
last time).
Also we discovered that there is “free
firewood” that is when we discovered that you pay for the fire permit –
what!!!!!! As it is cold we went inside and I think tonight we will need all
our blankets as it is fairly cold!!!
Let’s hope this was a one-day-off-cold
and the warm weather will come back. By the way we couldn’t believe it
-that the campground is still full!!!
Frost outside and cold inside
This morning when we woke up it was
really cold inside: 3 C – and when looking outside there was frost on the
picnic table!!! Guess Fall is in the air. Good thing we have a furnace to heat
up a bit and a hot coffee
Once the sun came out it felt warm –
so we went for a walk in the sunshine – so amazing also with great views on the
mountain – last night we had rain and this morning the sky is blue. And as it
was warmer outside in the sunshine then inside we had breakfast outside!!!
Meeting more world travellers
On this campground there were two big
exhibition vehicles – one of them: the Germans Gine met already yesterday
morning in Jasper and this morning we talked with the Swiss Couple and as well
with Simone and Chris from Stuttgart and learned about their travels -as well
as the problems long-term-travels can give like when you have to wait for a
part for four weeks and you can’t keep going.
Meeting the Mexican family at Peyto
Lake
Last time we were here we really liked
Peyto Lake, so we stopped here again and yes we found a parking lot, then we
walked up to the viewpoint and as we are there with all the tourists we met Pato
and Lola again – that was so cool – so we exchanged phone numbers as we met now
4x – I mean how unusual is it that we are at the same day and time at the same
viewpoint and see each other in the middle of all the people.
We walked a bit further along to see
some more of the views and then on the way back we meet the Germans – guess we
always see the same people again.
View only – Bow lake
Gine’s original plan was that today we
walk to the waterfall along the lake – ok this would work if we would find a
parking lot – but as we drive down the road – the vehicles are already parking
along the sides and there was no spot in the back so we decided it is not meant
to be and stopped at the Viewpoint of Bow Lake to enjoy the beautiful colors of
the lake.
Good
Bye Icefield parkway – until next time – and the views are always amazing.
2025-05-22