August 29, 2025
- hfalk3
- Sep 5
- 4 min read
Jasper, Alberta > Banff, British Columbia
Good morning. It hasn’t been mentioned as of yet but one of the nice things in Jasper has been “porterage”. This is the hotel has taken our bags from the bus and directly placed them in our room. The only bags we had to deal with were our carry-on bags. Cosmos used to provide this service in Europe and Africa, but we were told that they discontinued it during COVID. Our prior trips with Cosmos didn’t offer this service. It is however a nice thing.
Today our journey takes us from Jasper National Park in Alberta to Banff National Park in British Columbia. The roadway linking Jasper to Lake Louise, near Banff, is said to be one of the most beautiful journeys on the planet – the Icefields Parkway, aka Albert’s Highway 93. It’s a 232 km stretch of double-lane highway with amazing views of soaring Rocky Mountain peaks, icefields, glaciers, vast sweeping valleys and an abundance of wildlife. The Icefields Parkway is rated as one of the top drives in the world by Condé Nast Traveller.
The first event this morning was a trip to Starbucks for breakfast, coffee and tea. We placed our bags outside our door for a 07:30 pick-up and headed down to the motor coach a little after 08:00. By 08:40, one of the guests just couldn’t seem to follow the rules and be ready to go at 08:30, boy it is annoying. If you aren’t fifteen minutes early, you are LATE. My Germanic heritage has given me a Teutonic sense of time; I have not outgrown it.
It had just gone 10:30 when we arrive at our first stop, The Columbia Icefield. The Columbia Icefield is the largest ice field in the Rocky Mountains. It is located astride the Continental Divide along the border of Alberta and British Columbia. Part of the ice field is in Jasper National Park and part of it is in Banff National Park. It is shrinking at an incredible rate, and we are luck enough to see it, but we also got to walk on it.
There is a beautiful lodge where our motor coach stopped. The typical tourist stuff and a Starbucks. We got off our motor coach, walked over to the lodge, Tyler got our tickets to the ice field, and then boarded another different motor coach to take us over to the ice field where we would board an Ice Explorer.
The Ice Explorers are all-terrain mobility transports, aka specialized motor coaches, which can transport up to 56 passengers. They have massive low-pressure tires and are stable enough to traverse roads with inclines or declines up to 35 degrees. These massive vehicles were specifically designed for use on ice and snow. The only other place in the world to have these vehicles is Antarctica. They have extra large side and top windows that provide greater all-around visibility.
It was great fun to ride in this vehicle. Walking on the Icefield was also interesting. A little slippery maybe but we didn’t fall down. It is spectacular to be able to see this and walk on it knowing in a few years it will simply be gone. Actually, quite humbling. After our walk it was back to the lodge for lunch.
We sat out on the patio and ate the sandwiches we brought and shared our A&W root beer. Afterward we walked though the gift shop and used the facilities before heading back to our motor coach for the ride on to Banff. We are still 185 km from Banff so we have a ride ahead of us.
It should be noted that this is the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, and it is celebrated here in Canada. Labor Day weekend marks the end of the normal tourist season and the beginning of school. Accordingly, there are a number of vehicles on the road, including campers and trailers. Going is slow.
We were supposed to stop at Lake Louise on the way to Banff but apparently it was overcrowded and the road to Lake Louise was clogged, so Tyler and Nelson decided to skip it today, and try it on our way to Kamloops on Sunday.
We did manage to get to Banff about 15:30. After a short motor coach orientation to Banff we got to the hotel. We are staying at Irwin’s Mountain Inn ring on Banff Ave. not more than 500 meters from the center of town. We checked-in and settled in our room; again, nice thing our bags were already there.
We did a short walk into town. There was something familiar about it. It really seems like we have been here before. Still haven’t been able to place the feeling. It is “ski village” like, clearly a tourist mecca, but exactly where this feeling is coming from alludes both of us.
Dinner was at the restaurant attached to the hotel. El Toro. Yes, Mexican food in Canada who would have thought. I had the beef fajita and Mary ordered a ship toco wrap. They were both ok.
It has been a long day on the motor coach. We did get to see some beautiful scenery along the way, and walking on the ice was kick, but now we are tired. After dinner we took another walk into town just to keep from going to bed too early. Then it was off to bed. A great day.
Buonanotte e ciao,
Enrico e Maria
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