I had the pleasure of driving from my home in Edmonton through the Rocky Mountains and back en route to the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education in Kamloops BC. It was a great trip partly because I got to show this spectaual scenery to two friends – Albert Sangra form the Open University of Catalonia and Stefan Stenbom from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
I’ve been going to the Rockies since I was a kid and my parents served as house parents in a number of Canadian Youth Hostels on the road from Banff to Jasper. Arguably this Ice Fields Parkway is one of, if not the most scienic paved highway in the world. Despite the many trips I’ve made to the mountains, I have never seen a live grizzly bear (though many black bears). Perhpas just to impress my European friends on this trip we saw not one, but two grizzlies and a black bear thrown in for good measure – a regular mountain safari!
Grizzly #1
Grizzly #2
The second grizzly was a bit further away, but showed off his height a couple of times by standing up on his hind paws to scratch his back on a tree.
Of course we had to take the giant snow machine ride up onto Athabasca Glacier (sadly in retreat these years) and ventured out on to the new GlacierSkywalk– a glass floored walkway cantilevered 918 feet above the valley floor.
On the Athabasca Glacier
Glacier Skywalk
All in all a great spring trip, with good friends – one of whom, Stefan, is a great photographer!
Hello Prof. Terry
Must have been an interesting and exciting journey, I hope one day to have the opportunity of interacting with the snow and see these beautiful animals (of course from a little further, ha ha ha), for now I enjoy the pictures as you have shared.
Regards to your friends, especially Albert Sangra, who I admire and read all his publications.
Greetings from Cienfuegos, Cuba.
Raidell Avello