Getting here:
This North America's most scenic highway starts almost immediately outside Lake Louise village on Canada Route 93. The Brewster tour coach departs from Banff town centre with a quick stop at Lake Louise Junction to pick up passengers before entering the Icefield Parkway. Alternatively one can also drive through this highway, but at 300-km one way journey, it can be cumbersome especially with the view of spectacular of soaring mountain peaks that may divert your attention.

Description:
The Icefield Parkway is highly reputable for obvious reasons - tens of mesmerizing glacial-fed lakes, countless soaring mountain peaks and numerous glacial fields. Imagine seeing it all in just one highway stretch. It perhaps adequately summarize what the Canadian Rockies has to offer.

The early stage of the highway runs parallel to the Bow River (if you are coming from Lake Louise Junction). There are a number of lakes that I passed by - Herbert Lake, Hector Lake and Peyto Lake. Most of them were less than spectacular due to their frozen condition. Peyto Lake, for example, is reputed to be the bluest lake in Canadian Rockies, but one may have to wait until July to enjoy that. There is also a unique spot nicknamed "the Wailing Wall" which is actually a towering cliff with a series of small waterfalls that make a "wailing" sound.

There are also a number of glaciers and icefields along the highway - Hector Glacier, Waputik Icefield, Wapta Icefield, Crowfoot Glacier, Molar Glacier and Drummon Glacier. Most of them were barely visible or not immediately accessible, save it for Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier which are located near the fringe of the highway and highly known by the world over.

Columbia Icefield Centre is located about halfway between Banff and Jasper, but it lies within the latter's border. There is also a small Parks Canada Information Centre here but the attention mostly goes to the massive Athabasca Glacier clearly visible from here. Not just that, one can practically walk to the glacier's tongue (although that is not recommended for safety reasons and because there is a special Brewster Snow Coach tour called "Glaciers in Motion" for that purpose).

Athabasca Glacier itself is a behemoth 7-km giant of slow-moving ice flowing from the massive Columbia Icefield. Apart from a snow coach tour, one can also opt for guide walks which take between 3 to 6 hours to complete and will set you back between C$30-C$50 per session.