Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies - Alberta

The Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience is located on Canada’s most scenic mountain roadway; The Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff. This is the route to over one hundred visible glaciers, turquoise lakes, rushing waterfalls and numerous hiking trails, picnic spots and campgrounds. Getting to the Columbia Icefield is a remarkable attraction in itself!

The Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience™ reveals the most unique attraction in the Canadian Rockies. Massive Brewster Ice Explorers, specially designed for glacial travel, take passengers on a remarkable excursion onto the surface of the Athabasca Glacier. Each 90 minute journey is lead by an experienced driver-guide, who shares a wealth of fascinating information about glaciers, icefields and their impact on our environment. Mid-point in the tour, passengers can safely step out onto the glacier and stand on this powerful ancient ice. Tours depart every 15-30 minutes from the Icefield Centre on the Icefields Parkway.

Facing the Columbia Icefield Visitors' Centre lies the Athabasca Glacier - a tongue of ice 6 kilometres long and one kilometre wide. Take time for Brewster's "Ice Age Adventure", a tour onto the icy slopes of the Athabasca Glacier. You will travel in a specially designed Ice Explorer to the middle of the glacier, on a 5 kilometre round trip journey. Your driver/guide will explain how glaciers are formed and point out interesting geological features as you travel in safety and comfort. At the mid-point, you will have the option of stepping out onto ice formed from snow falling as long as 400 years ago.

The Columbia Icefield is located on the boundary of Banff and Jasper National Parks. One of the largest accumulations of ice and snow south of the Arctic Circle, it covers an area of nearly 325 square kilometres, sometimes reaching a depth of 300-360 metres. The continuous accumulation of snow feeds eight major glaciers including the Athabasca, Dome, and Stutfield Glaciers, all visible from the Icefields Parkway. The Columbia Icefield is a true "hydrological apex," for its meltwater feeds streams and rivers that pour into the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans.

On of the greatest sights in the world

The Icefields Parkway drive between Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper is pretty spectacular stuff! The undeniable highlight is the Columbia Icefield which is one of the largest accumulations of ice and snow south of the Arctic Circle, covering an area of nearly 325 square kilometres in the Western Canadian Province of Alberta.

The Athabasca Glacier is a tongue of ice 6 kms long and 1 km wide which drops almost to the road. Brewsters of Banff, offer tours up onto the icy slopes in the purpose built Ice Explorer, an all-terrain vehicle equipped with large, low pressure tires. The 5 km round trip travels up over the ice and the driver/guide explain how glaciers are formed and points out interesting geological features. Up at the icefall, below the glacier headwall, you can walk around on the ice, make snowballs from 400 years old snow, take pictures and cool your heels for a while.

The tours run from the Icefield Centre, a chalet-style stone building which houses 'The Glacier Gallery' an extensive interpretive centre on the National Park. There is also a dining room, cafeteria and snack bar, gift shop and from the third floor up - a hotel. The Chalet Hotel has 32 guest rooms - most have at least two queen beds and a loft. You can actually hear the glacier moving in the still of the night.

If you are traveling the Icefields Parkway - you can’t miss the Glacier. Leaving from Banff the Parkway follows the Bow, Mistaya and North Saskatchewan Rivers and after an essential diversion to see Lake Louise, you return to the Parkway and drive on by Bow Lake, Peyto and Crowfoot Glaciers, Mistaya Canyon and the Weeping Wall to the Glacier.

From Jasper, the route passes Athabasca Falls and the Sunwapta Canyon. It is breathtaking wilderness habitat for elk, bighorn sheep, moose, mountain goat and both grizzly and black bears. Allow a whole day for this drive of 230 km (143 miles) from Banff to Jasper and if you are on motor coach tour, the Icefield is usually a major sightseeing stop. There are also roundtrip motor coach day tours from Banff to the Icefields.