Waking up to the sun rising over giant towering glaciers, we found ourselves in the parking lot RV campsite of the Icefields Centre. This campsite is nicely positioned adjacent to the meeting points for excursions like the Columbia Icefield Glacier Adventure which take you on a ride on an all-terrain vehicle named the “Ice Explorer” and atop the glass-floored “Columbia Icefield Skywalk.” We opted to explore on our own and embarked on a self-guided hike to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier.

Hike To Athabasca Glacier

This hike begins at a parking lot just across the highway from the Icefields Centre RV sites. It courses through a relatively boring stretch of dusty land, marked with signs indicating the size of the glacier in previous years decades ago before it receded to its current smaller size. You can only approach the toe of the glacier and cannot touch the actual ice. The leading face of the Athabasca Glacier was quiet muddy and unlike the clean clear blueness of the Mendenhall Glacier we hiked to in Alaska or the Sawyer Glacier we boated to in Tracy Arm Fjord.

Tangle Creek Falls

This area is supposedly known for sheep sightings, but we did not see any.

Sunwapta Falls

The walk to the Upper Falls is quite quick, and we found the Upper Falls to be the most picturesque. If you are short on time, I recommend skipping the 1.3km walk to the Lower Falls

Goats And Glaciers Lookout

This area is supposedly known for goat sightings, but we did not see any. I see a trend.

Athabasca Falls

This place gets CROWDED. This sightseeing spot was decidedly one of the more “touristy” feeling ones along the Icefields Parkway. Athabasca Falls has a big parking lot but we still needed to circle a bit before finding a spot. A very easy walk along a boardwalk takes you to the Upper Falls. You can choose to continue meandering on boardwalks (definitely a walk, not a hike) to get closer to the falls and feel the spray. There is also a short detour to the right that takes you into one of the dry canyons that was initially carved out of the rock by ripping currents, but was then “abandoned” by the river leaving it to run dry.

Town Of Jasper And Wapiti Campground

After enjoying a beer at Jasper Brewing Co and an ice cream from Grandma’s Place, we headed off to find somewhere to set up camp for that night. We were lucky to snag the second to last spot at the Wapiti Campground overflow area. We cooked dinner at our campsite and waited for sundown.

Northern Lights At Pyramid Lake

After dinner, we set off to the sister lakes Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake for an evening of (hopeful) stargazing. We started off at Patricia Lake for sunset, and it wasn’t the warm colorful sunset I was hoping for but it’s impossible for Jasper’s mountains and lakes to be anything but beautiful.

After dusk began to fell, we made our way to nearby Pyramid Lake. We parked and sat in the van, waiting for deeper darkness and summoning the courage to emerge from our shelter and brave the mosquitoes. I’m so glad we did!

Pyramid Lake offers spectacular views of Pyramid Mountain as a backdrop against the lake waters surrounding a very picturesque tree-studded Pyramid Island. Pyramid Island is accessed by a narrow bridge over the water, and this is where I set up my tripod to hopefully capture some memories of the stars. I was stunned and overjoyed to see that glimpses of the aurora borealis were visible in my photos! The Northern Lights are more visible in long exposure photographs compared to with the naked eye. We had been tracking the aurora borealis forecast and were not hopeful to see it at all during this trip, so this was a wonderful surprise!