day 8: beauty of the forces of nature
Up north amongst the glaciers and lakes where reception is non-existent, it was nice to completely disconnect from the outside world as we continued our trip through the back country mountains and took a lesson of the forces of nature.
astonishing morning
after a particularly windy night fueled by the neighboring thunderstorm, we woke up to an amazing view of the mountain range reflecting on the lake. The sun was peaking above the higher clouds forming god rays on the mountains, it was a beautiful sight while we enjoyed our breakfast.
continuing our way up north
hopping back on the icefield parkway, the overwhelming beauty of the mountains and glaciers was humbling. everything here is amplified, hills become huge mountains, creeks become raging rapids and snow becomes enormous glaciers. we stopped everywhere we could to take it all in.
Lesson #1 : fire
passing through the valleys devastated by forest fires, we saw the remnants of forest that where once lush and green turned into flower field with black pillars scattered where the trees where. seeing the total destruction of the valley left us stunned with mixed emotions. its really interesting to be able too see the valley mid change.
Lesson #2 : ice
Our first major stop along the icefield parkway was the Columbia icefield. This icefield boasts an impressive 6 glaciers! The most iconic glacier in this region is the Athabasca glacier, which has receded more than 1.5km in the past 125 years. It’s incredible to walk towards the glacier and going past markers showing their recession over the years. It concretizes our impact on global warming.
Along the path we also got to witness the huge gashes and striations in the rock caused by the glacier slowly moving across them over thousands of years, grinding the rocks down. Now that’s the huge power of nature !
Lesson 3 - Water
Resuming our journey up the Icefield Parkway, we made a stop at Sunwapta Falls where we witnessed the power that water bears. violently carving it’s way through the bedrock, it forms canyons and waterfalls. The sheer amount of water going through the Sunwapta Falls was truly humbling. Every river we came across had a distinctively different color form the last depending on witch glaciers they came from. From silty white to bright baby blue all the way to emerald green, its a wonderful sight to see.
Our home at honeymoon lake
Stopping at a random ‘‘first come first serve’’ campsite at honeymoon lake we set up our tents before making our way to the lake. in the middle of a forest beneath the giant slabs making the neighboring mountains lies a ridiculously calm lake acting like a mirror reflecting its beautiful surroundings. we sat on a bench in the water marveling and immersing ourselves in nature.