IceFields Parkway – Weekend Travel Flash

I won’t deny it. Our road trip in British Columbia, Canada is one for the books. I would even go as far to say that everyone should make a road trip in this fantastic corner of the world at least once in their life.

It’s not just the incredible nature that can’t be described in words that makes me say this. It’s also the people: honest, polite and incredibly nice people. They make you feel welcome, always sincerely curious as to what your reason is to visit their country from so far away.

And when you say that you’re Dutch, they come up with the most intriguing stories of Dutch relatives that made the brave cross so many years ago over the Atlantic Ocean, to settle in the ‘Promised Land’, Canada. After World War II, there was literally nothing left in Europe. Since Canada was so accepting and willing to take in the refugees that suffered emotionally and financially in the War, many Dutch people emigrated to this country. There are now even towns with Dutch names, that only have Dutch inhabitants or those who are descendants of the Dutch.

After having spent some days in Vancouver, Victoria, Whistler, Kamloops, Clearwater and Jasper, we continued our trip to Banff. To get there, we had to drive the renowned Icefields Parkway. The name itself sounded promising, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I had only learned that Icefields Parkway is 232 km (144 mi.) long and runs right through the Canadian Rockies (thank you guide books).

After having waved goodbye to Baloo, our backyard brown bear, (yes, we had a brown bear in the ‘backyard’ of our lodge in Jasper) we got into our rental, entered the 93 – aka Icefields Parkway – and soon enough we made our first stop at Maligne Lake.

It was May, but it was cold. Very cold. It was also drizzling and the sky was grey when we arrived at Maligne Lake. We did wait until the sky cleared a bit, but as you can see from my photos, the weather wasn’t optimal for photography. However, I still think you can see the stunning beauty of this place, of which we had the honor to have to ourselves that morning.

We could have stayed longer, but we still had almost 200 km more to go that day. Like I said before, the nature of British Columbia, and especially the beauty of Icefields Parkway cannot be expressed in words. The only thing I can do is show it to you:

Icefields Parkway is definitely one of the highlights of our Canadian Rockies road trip.

Have you ever drove Icefields Parkway, and do you have a favorite road trip you’d like to share with us?

Note: all photos, views and opinions in this post are my own

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