Columbia Icefield Glacier tour and on to Jasper

The run 🏃‍♀️ didn’t happen after all despite all the solid intentions as it started raining as soon as I got out of the center. The body needed some work out so it was a 30 minute HIIT in the room with YouTube to my rescue. Anushree made good use of the Yoga mats that were provided in each of our spacious loft rooms with her Surya Namaskar by the lake. And Chinmay went on his walk-run at the 7000ft elevation. The breakfast at the hotel was a let-down just like most of the food there. After soaking in some more of the glacier views from the lobby, it was time to check out and get on to the Columbia Icefield Adventure from the main floor downstairs. The bus took us close to the glacier from where the heavy duty $1.2M Ice Explorer drove us on the Athabasca glacier where we disembarked and treaded on the glacier with utmost caution to avoid falling on the slippery ice. Our clothing layers helped us enjoy the chilly temperatures on the glacier and admire the thick slab Columbia Icefield above feeding the glaciers. It is sad to imagine that the glacier may not be around by the year 2100. A major engineering feat in an of itself, the Skywalk offered multiple vantage points of the majestic mountains and all the photo-ops that come along with it. Another 110 km of a scenic cell signal free drive brought us to the town of Jasper. We checked into the Jasper Inn and suites and grabbed some food/drinks from Tim Horton’s in town on kids’ demand. With a non-existent lobby and dated but spacious loft style rooms, we were tempted to look for alternate lodging options for our 3 nights in Jasper. However we decided to make peace with it and not let it taint our otherwise fabulous trip. The 5km Valley of the 5 lakes hike was incredibly beautiful and uniquely distinct as every other hike had been so far. The lakes were numbered from 5 to 1, each one offering heart warming sights with clear water surrounded by thick vegetation and the remarkable Rocky peaks. Parishi had decided to explore the little town on her own while we were hiking and had made reservations at Andaz Indian restaurant for the dinner that Varun had been day dreaming about and most of us were looking forward to since the forced fasting at the Glacier View Lodge. We went overboard ordering appetizers- the samosa chaat, onion bhaji, vada pau, Soya chhaap, Reeva’s daal makhani were all delicious. Amongst the subjis we ordered, Kadai paneer was delicious and the mixed vegetable was mediocre. All in all this dinner did not disappoint and was very satiating.

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