The rocky roads

Unplug. For that’s all you can do when the mighty Rockies in Alberta, Canada, stare back at you. Their towering, craggy peaks cradling massive expanses of glaciers that melt into emerald lakes. At every bend of the Icefields Parkway — the highway connecting the Banff and Jasper National Parks on the eastern side of the Rockies — the stillness grows louder and louder, reminding you exactly why this is counted among the world’s best road trips.

Pulling out of the Edmonton airport and heading to Jasper, past the sleepy countryside towns at the edge of the natural reserve, I feel the power too; lulled as I am by the natural rhythm of tranquility, until Dieter, our guide, brings the car to a screeching halt. There, just a few feet away, stands a young moose nibbling the grass at the edge of the road. His partner, the lady moose, I assume, peeks nervously from behind a copse of aspen trees. But before I can take this presumably mundane sight for granted, Dieter tells me just how lucky we are to see them at such close proximity. Even for locals like him, this is a rare felicity. I take it, of course, as a sign of things to come. Good things. Adventurous things.

And sure enough, over the next week, the moose work their charm. It all starts with a ride on the Jasper Sky Tram, the highest aerial tramway in the country, which glides over dark green alpine hills only to deposit us in 10 short minutes to a higher perch on the snow-topped Whistlers Mountain. Along the way lies Jasper town, wedged between the green expanse of its namesake, the national park. Unlike busier, cosmopolitan cities like Toronto and Montreal, towns like Jasper in the Canadian outback still retain a certain rawness that mirrors the landscape. The kind that perhaps brought Arthur Conan Doyle to it from across the Pond twice in 1914 and 1925. (Apparently, on the first trip he stayed with Lady Doyle in the railcar they were travelling in. Jasper had no accommodation at that time.)

Rudyard Kipling too is said to have been drawn to this wild land and its rivers that do “not slide or rustle like prairie rivers, but brawl across bars of blue pebbles, and a greenish tinge in the water hints of snow”. Later in the day, we meet just such a river, the Athabasca, and its gurgling tributaries, while exploring the Maligne valley’s mossy rockscapes and waterfalls in the national park. The site of our next adventure, the Athabasca we ride on rafts, piercing through the white noise of its glacial waters to arrive again at that familiar stillness.

Back on the Icefields Parkway, which cuts across the park, luck keeps us company again, as we find elks, big-horned sheep, mountain bears and even grizzlies en route. A wildlife junkie, I can hardly contain my excitement, and wonder if we really need to ‘get somewhere’. But ‘get’ we do, halting at the Columbia Icefield to take in the splendour of the drive so far. Although the camera shutters play a constant background score, the sight of a 215 sqkm glacier, guarded by 11 of the 22 highest peaks of the Rockies, is unforgettable.

A red monster bus, crunching the ice below it, carts us to the middle of the glacier for half an hour. This, and a walk on the U-shaped, vertigo-inducing Glacier Skywalk — which opened to tourists this May — are an excellent orientation to the Rockies. Inching nervously on the glass-floored observation platform of the Skywalk jutting over the Sunwapta valley at 918 feet, I have to still my nerves with every step. The predominance of glass — to blend in with the landscape — ‘heightens’ the experience by several notches.

It is an experience that can never be outdone, I think. Yet, hours later, on the road to Banff, the frozen Bow lake proved me wrong. The highlight of my trip, the ‘lake’ is really a massive sheath of ice mirroring the peaks surrounding it and the wispy clouds in the sky. Cracking the thick ice with stones is quite impossible, of course, but I do leave behind a few ephemeral etchings. The first travellers on this route were fur-trading natives, followed by colonial British officers and the men who set up the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1881. Bundled in layers and transported in heated vehicles, I wondered how they navigated these treacherous conditions just over a century ago.

Our last stop is the town of Banff. A UNESCO world heritage site, this is the ‘pass’ to kilometres of sweeping valleys, pristine lakes and several viewing points of the Banff National Park. A ticket to the Johnston Canyon, Lake Louise and Lake Moraine, whose waters are a near-mythical blue.

But it’s on the waters of the green Bow river, alone in a canoe that I realise I’ve forgotten which day or date it is. And that it doesn’t matter. The moose made sure of it.

Supriya Sehgal is a Bengaluru-based writer

Travel log

Get there

Arrive at the Edmonton International Airport and transfer to Jasper (392km/4.5 hours) via the Yellowhead Highway. The journey from Jasper to Banff on the Icefields Parkway is only 288km. But it’s best to break journey at Columbia Icefield. Several photo opportunities are sure to slow you down. Plan your departure from Calgary International Airport, off Banff (144km/1.30 hours).

Stay

The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge is a luxury retreat (CAD409-649 for doubles; fairmont.com/jasper) At Columbia Icefield, try Glacier View Inn, with a mammoth glacier right outside your window (from CAD199 for doubles; brewster.ca). In Banff, the mountain lodge Banff Ptarmigan Inn is conveniently located on the main street (CAD224, up to four adults per room; banffptarmiganinn.com)

Visit: You can visit all year round. I went in summer, but if you are looking to ski and snowboard, now is a good time to go (until March).

Do

Try all these activities if you’re an adrenaline junkie: Jasper Sky Tram (adults CAD35; jasperskytram.com),

rafting in Jasper (adults CAD64,jasperrafttours.com), Jasper Park Riding Stables (from CAD42; jasperparkstables.com), Columbia Icefield (CAD49.95; brewster.ca) and Glacier Skywalk (from CAD24.95; brewster.ca)

Blink tip

After an overkill of wild game burgers and sirloin steaks, refresh your taste buds at Nourish Bistro in Banff. The cosy, all-vegetarian cafe promises a familiar buzz, Q shared platters and delicious fare.

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