After three days of kayaking, we did some driving today. Mt. Edith Cavell was our first destination. When Brussels fell to Germany during WWI, Edith Cavell, a British nurse in charge of a local nursing school refused to leave her post and cared for the wounded on both sides. She helped over two hundred Allied soldiers to escape, was arrested for espionage and executed by a firing squad. As a tribute to the "martyr nurse" for her courage, Canada gave her name to the grandest mountain in the Athabasca Valley.
The nine mile drive up to the parking lot was steep, narrow, winding and bicycle laden. We passed six tandem, narrow tired bicycles as well as a few singles. It was up hill almost all the way. The people had to be crazy to do it. We later passed them way down the highway.
When we got to the parking lot, the mosquitos were horrific. We put on our hiking shoes and climbed the Path of the Glacier Trail up to the lookout for Angel Glacier. As we approached the end of the trail, we could see a pond with big chunks of ice floating in it. The glacier is called a hanging glacier as it clings to the side of the mountain. In the fall of 2012 Ghost Glacier fell into the pond causing a huge flash flood (they called it a Tsunami) that wiped out the lower trail to the pond. Had it happened during the day, there would have been a devastating loss of life. People are no longer allowed down near the pond which is surrounded by thick blue glacial ice.
Once we were down the mountain, we continued down 93A stopping at a pond to watch a couple of loons. There water was so clear we could actually see them swimming under water.
We continued down to where 93A and 93 meet and stopped at Athabasca Falls. These thundering falls have several viewpoints all around them with trails and interpretive signs between. All the photos we took didn't begin to show the power of the water as it poured down into the canyon. We did get some good photos of the rainbows in the mist, though. The river had changed course at some time in the distant past and there were stairs going down through the old, narrow canyon to a lookout of the river and upstream through the canyon to the falls. The sign said fifty-nine steps but they weren't all together so not a bad climb.
We then drove down to Sunwapta Falls where we sat on a log and ate our lunch. These falls, also on the Athabasca River, were not quite as powerful but still a sight to see. The tall canyon walls down river were most impressive. Before we got to the falls, we had stopped again at the place where the brochures said mountain goats usually could be seen. No such luck. I said that they probably hung out in the bare spots beside the road that were light colored and the same clay like substance as the Kerkeslin pullout. Sure enough there were cars pulled off beside the road and when we pulled over there was a male and female in the ditch. Their color blends so well with the terrain that it was hard to see them and harder to get a good picture. We were just getting ready to leave when one adult moved and there was a tiny kid not more that eighteen inches long lying there. How cute was he?! Looking closer at the photos, the kid was there all along. It just blended so well we couldn't see it.
Shortly after seeing the goats, there were more cars pulled over and there was a light colored black bear. We could only see it through the bushes but enough to know it was a black and not a grizzly.
We got back to the motorhome late afternoon and the two motorhomes beside us were both from Maine. What are the chances. Two brothers and their wives from Lewiston and Greene were on their way back from Alaska. From the stories they told about the roads, i'm glad we didn't decide to drive there.
The nine mile drive up to the parking lot was steep, narrow, winding and bicycle laden. We passed six tandem, narrow tired bicycles as well as a few singles. It was up hill almost all the way. The people had to be crazy to do it. We later passed them way down the highway.
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| The People at the Bridge had to be in Their Eighties - They Made it to the Top |
Once we were down the mountain, we continued down 93A stopping at a pond to watch a couple of loons. There water was so clear we could actually see them swimming under water.
We continued down to where 93A and 93 meet and stopped at Athabasca Falls. These thundering falls have several viewpoints all around them with trails and interpretive signs between. All the photos we took didn't begin to show the power of the water as it poured down into the canyon. We did get some good photos of the rainbows in the mist, though. The river had changed course at some time in the distant past and there were stairs going down through the old, narrow canyon to a lookout of the river and upstream through the canyon to the falls. The sign said fifty-nine steps but they weren't all together so not a bad climb.
We then drove down to Sunwapta Falls where we sat on a log and ate our lunch. These falls, also on the Athabasca River, were not quite as powerful but still a sight to see. The tall canyon walls down river were most impressive. Before we got to the falls, we had stopped again at the place where the brochures said mountain goats usually could be seen. No such luck. I said that they probably hung out in the bare spots beside the road that were light colored and the same clay like substance as the Kerkeslin pullout. Sure enough there were cars pulled off beside the road and when we pulled over there was a male and female in the ditch. Their color blends so well with the terrain that it was hard to see them and harder to get a good picture. We were just getting ready to leave when one adult moved and there was a tiny kid not more that eighteen inches long lying there. How cute was he?! Looking closer at the photos, the kid was there all along. It just blended so well we couldn't see it.
Shortly after seeing the goats, there were more cars pulled over and there was a light colored black bear. We could only see it through the bushes but enough to know it was a black and not a grizzly.
We got back to the motorhome late afternoon and the two motorhomes beside us were both from Maine. What are the chances. Two brothers and their wives from Lewiston and Greene were on their way back from Alaska. From the stories they told about the roads, i'm glad we didn't decide to drive there.
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