Columbia Icefield y Athabasca Glacier
Photo: Ethan Sahagun, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
🦩 Nature & wildlife📍 Jasper
Where
About this place
Across from the Columbia Icefield Centre, the Athabasca Glacier flows down from the Columbia Icefield between Mount Athabasca and Mount Andromeda. The centre is the hub for exploring the area: Parks Canada's Discovery and Information Centre is open May to September, and the Glacier Gallery from mid-April to mid-October, with the exhibit 'Meltdown! A Drop in Time'.
Two short walks start across the road: the Forefield Trail, over ground the glacier has uncovered since the mid-1800s, and the Toe of the Athabasca Glacier, which reaches the edge of the ice. Parks Canada warns that walking on the glacier is not safe: the ice at the toe is hollow and collapsing, and several people have died falling into crevasses hidden under snow. The only way onto the ice is Pursuit's Ice Explorer tour (2027 season: May 1 to October 11).
It's cold and windy here even in midsummer, and it can snow any time of year: bring a jacket, gloves and a warm hat.
You need a national park pass to stop on the Icefields Parkway.
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