Columbia Icefield is the most popular tourist attraction within Jasper National Park in Canada. It attracts millions of visitors everyday. Columbia Icefield is located directly off the Columbia Icefield Parkway. When driving along Icefield Parkway, you can clearly see the glacier on the left hand side and the mist on top of it.
This is a must visit place for us since we are driving up to Jasper from Banff. We got to Columbia Icefield around 11AM and bought the package. The package includes the tour on Columbia Icefield and Skywalk. The bus departs from Columbia Icefield Discovery Center and will head to the Columbia Icefield first, then head to the Skywalk.
It was finally our time to get on the bus around 1:30PM. The wheel of the bus is gigantic. It is as tall as a child with a lot of traction on it! The bus drives from around 10 minutes to get to the glacier slowly. At the glacier, there was a steep climb where the bus is almost in a 45 degree decline.
When we got off the bus and stepped onto the glacier, it was cold and freezing. We were glad that we wore jackets that were thick enough to keep us warm. We saw many people wear shorts and skirts, and freezing themselves.
On the glacier, there are marked boundaries indicating the safe area where you can set foot on. If you go beyond the boundary, then you are at your own risk and could fall into the glacier. So make sure you watch out for the boundary sign.
The water on the glacier was also freezing and clear. We actually had a taste of it and the water was actually sweet.
We got back onto the bus and headed towards the Skywalk. The Skywalk is really nothing special. It is essentially a glass walk way sticking out of the cliff for people to view the valley carved out by the glacier thousands of years ago. That is all it is. It was very disappointing. We felt that it was a rip off.
In general, Columbia Icefield is definitely a must visit attraction when visiting Jasper. However, we strongly recommend to skip Skywalk. Skywalk is really a waste of time and money.
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