A Taste of Heaven: Angel Glacier in Jasper National Park

 Mount Edith Cavell (rhymes with travel) is just south of the town of Jasper and is one of the mountains that define Jasper.

The mountain went by many unofficial names until 1916, when it was named for Edith Cavell. She was an English nurse executed by the Germans during World War I for having helped Allied solders escape from occupied Belgium.

The rapidly receding Angel Glacier is one of the best known in the park, and was once part of a massive glacial system that carved out the valleys of Jasper.

If you don't believe in global warming, just take a look at what's happened to this glacier in 25 years.

Ice Age 2 - The Big Melt: Touring the Columbia Icefield

Sno-Coach Tours and Icefield Explorers
on the Athabasca Glacier

Looking like a Volkswagen on a bulldozer track, this is one of the original Bombardier snowmobiles used for tours of the Athabasca Glacier (Columbia Icefield) in the 1960s and 1970s.

Note that the front skis have been replaced by two wheels, since the Bombardier is no longer used for touring the glacier - only for display.

These vintage "lunar rovers" have been replaced by modern "Icefield Explorers" or "Sno-Coaches" that let you visit the glacier in comfort.

full story:
http://brandonsunnews.blogspot.com/2009/10/highway-to-heaven-travelling-canadian.html

more stories:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-A-Nelson-Writer-Editor-and-More/374226352256

Coming Soon: Touring the Icefields Parkway Athabasca Falls - Let Justice Flow Like Water

Flowing from the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield all the way to the Arctic Ocean, the Athabasca River is the largest river system in Jasper National Park. As such, it is a living textbook of Canada's natural and human history.

Surely the highlight of any tour of the Jasper and the Icefields Parkway has to be a stop at Athabasca Falls, just half an hour south of Jasper's townsite.

The 23-metre Athabasca Falls is not very high by Canadian Rockies standards, but the size of the river makes it one of the most powerful falls to be found in the mountain national parks.
Niagara Falls are bigger, but these are more wild.