We started the day with breakfast at Altitude inside Glacier View Lodge before our Columbia Icefield Adventure. The first part of the tour began with a bus ride to the base area for the glacier, where we boarded the Ice Explorer, a particular vehicle designed to navigate the road to and from the glacier and drive on the ice of the glacier. Because the glacier is constantly moving, a unique set of safety measures is in place to keep everyone on the tours (and even the people who try to explore without the guides) safe. Each year, when Glacier View Lodge opens for the summer months, the road has to be reset since the glacier will literally rip part of the road apart (it takes the property weeks to close at the end of the season and reopen the following year).
Riding the Ice Explorer onto Athabasca Glacier
Part of the drive in the Ice Explorer requires the vehicle to drive down the steepest unpaved commercial road in North America. This allows visitors to get down into the glacier before the ride smooths out along the ice of the Athabasca Glacier. The Ice Explorers have special tires and are well-equipped for the ride, which was definitely an adventure!
Because the glacier is literally a giant, white block of ice, the surface is very reflective, so make sure to bring sunblock! Once parked, we had about 20 minutes on the surface of the glacier, allowing us ample time to take photos, walk around, and even fill our water bottles with fresh, glacial water (and yes, it’s amazing). This has to be one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had!
Visiting the Columbia Icefield Skywalk
After our explorations of the glacier, we were bused over to the Skywalk. If you’ve ever seen the Skywalk at Grand Canyon West, the Skywalk here is similar but smaller, cleaner, and way less crowded. Around this time, the smoke from the Alberta wildfires was starting to blow into the region (we’d been very lucky the past two days with clear skies and great air quality), but the sky wasn’t too smoky yet, so we had some fantastic views. If you’re lucky, you’ll have the chance to see some of the mountain goats or bighorn sheep either here or at the glacier!
Lunch at Chalet Restaurant at Glacier View Lodge
We returned to our hotel to grab lunch at Chalet, the other on-site restaurant at Glacier View Lodge. This spot is more of a cafeteria-style option, with plenty of choices from chicken fingers to butter chicken (my choice), lots of drinks (including adult beverages), and snacks. Like the rest of the venues at Glacier View Lodge, the restaurant has a great view.
Dinner at Altitude & Private Evening at the Skywalk
Dinner that night was also at Altitude, this time with a view of the other side of the lodge. We could tell the sky was getting pretty smoky at this point, but we still managed a private visit (they literally left the gate open just for us) to the Skywalk. The visit was supposed to be at sunset, but because the sky was getting hazy, the sunset wasn’t quite as vibrant as we had hoped. Even so, the visit to the Skywalk was so much fun and super memorable—we jumped up and down on the glass (perfectly safe since it can handle the weight of multiple Ice Explorers), spotted some sleeping goats, and got all the photos and videos we could possibly want!
Returning to Calgary & Wrapping Up the Icefields Trip
The next day, we headed back to Calgary, concluding our grand Icefield adventure. Sadly, this particular summer saw a massive wildfire rip through a good portion of Alberta, and the smoke in Jasper National Park was pretty brutal. A huge thank you to Pursuit for hosting me and allowing me to experience one of the coolest trips ever!
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