Canadian Rockies Trip: Day 7 (Icefields Parkway and Parker Ridge)

TravelThursday: July 29th

I woke up early in the morning to shoot the alpenglow on Pyramid peak
reflected on Pyramid lake.  Unfortunately a bunch of clouds contrived
to strategically place themselves on the eastern horizon so that the
expected light on Pyramid peak never materialized.

The day's program was to take the Icefields parkway back to Banff and
along the way visit the sights that we missed and also do a hike on
the way. 

Sunwapta Falls: The falls were not that remarkable.  The Sunwapta
river has excavated a narrow canyon reminiscent of the marble and
Maligne canyons.

Quartzite Boulder Pile: This is a rather non-descript point on the
Icefields parkway where a jumble of multicolored quartzite boulders
are located on both sides of the road.  It is a good place to
photograph colorful rock and lichens and we spent some time
photographing there.

View from Parker Ridge

Parker Ridge: We wanted to do a hike near the Columbia icefield and
the choices were Wilcox pass or Parker ridge.  We settled on the later
since it was shorter and would afford a view to the Saskatchewan
glacier which is not visible from the road.  The trail gains 25m
elevation with 2.5km one way distance.  It is a very very popular
trail with lots of people on it.  The trail starts climbing in a
forest and very soon leaves the treeline behind.  As we went up, we
had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and the beautiful
Icefields parkway snaking through them.  Once at the top, the trail
flattens out and follows the ridge.  Aftre following the ridge for a
little, the view to the west opened up and we could see the huge
Saskatchewan glacier.

Saskatchewan Glacier

Fossils Embedded in Rock

When at the top we saw some rocks which had
strange white nodules embedded in them.  We dawdled for a while at the
alipne tundra at the top, took some pictures and started coming back.

As we were descending the trail we kept seeing rocks with embedded
white nodules.  Finally we stopped by one such large rock and looked
closely at it and realized that the white nodules were fossils!  It
seems that the trail is littered with fossil-bearing rocks all around.

That evening we reached Banff and moved into the Banff Boundary Lodge
in Harvie Heights right next to the park boundary.  We were given a
two bedroom, 1.5 bath condo where we could stretch ourselves out
luxuriously.