Take an Icy Ride on the Ice Explorer
Want to go on an icy ride in the heart of Canada’s glacier country? Would you like to walk on a glacier? I did both on a Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience near Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada.
The Ice Explorer lurched onto Athabasca Glacier as the giant Terra tires gripped the ice. When the 56-passenger snow vehicle stopped, I walked out onto the glacial ice to discover an uneven surface that revealed a living, breathing sheet of frozen water.
There are plenty of places in the world where you can view glaciers. In Alaska, travelers observe the frozen fingers of ice from the deck of a cruise ship. Seeing the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier in New Zealand requries a hike that ends close to the terminus of the glacial sheets of ice. But in Canada, the easy journey to Athabasca Glacier via Ice Explorer takes you directly onto the glacier’s surface.
When I boarded the Ice Explorer at the Columbia Icefield Visitor’s Center, I looked across at Athabasca Glacier as it flowed like an icy tongue from the Columbia Icefield. During the 90-minute ride, a driver-guide told me that the 8 glaciers of the Columbia Icefield provide meltwater that eventually flows into three oceans—Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific. But the highlight was slip-sliding on the glacier’s ancient surface with my own two feet.
That early October afternoon, I felt like a child riding on a giant bouncy bus. The real children on my tour enjoyed it too. And the photographers snapped away at the glacier’s white expanse reflected against a deep blue sky.
After a day of sight-seeing on the Icefields Parkway by car or bus, the journey up Athabasca Glacier provided a fun break.
If you go:
Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience
Tour operates every 15-30 minutes from April to October
2010 rates: Adult (16+) $49.00 and Child (6-15) $24.00
Review by Donna L. Hull, My Itchy Travel Feet
All photos by Donna L. Hull
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