Icefields Parkway

Main Image: 

Although the Parkway itself may not be natural, all of the sights along the way are!

To travel the Icefields Parkway is to experience one of Canada’s national treasures and most rewarding destinations.  Stretching 230km (142 mi.) between Lake Louise and the town of Jasper, the Parkway offers easy access to one of the most spectacular mountain landscapes on Earth.  The entire journey lies protected within the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site, recognized by UNESCO in 1984 for its outstanding natural beauty and geological value.

Glimpse mountain wildlife in their natural setting, including bighorn sheep and mountain goat, black bear, elk and moose.  You may even see a grizzly bear, gray wolf, or the elusive woodland caribou.

The Icefield Parkway is home of the renowned Columbia Icefield, the largest reservoir of ice and snow in the Rocky Mountains.  At 200 square kilometres, the Icefield straddles the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, feeding three of the continent’s major river systems which flow to the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans.

Discover the Athabasca Glacier, the most famous and accessible glacier in North America.  Within walking distance of the parkway, visitors have the opportunity to venture safely onto the middle of the Athabasca during Brewster’s Columbia Icefield Glacier Experience.

Visit the Columbia Icefield Centre and Glacier Gallery to learn about this frozen alpine world and the people who discovered it.  Roadside interpretive exhibits tell the story of ecology, mountain wildlife and geology.