Driving Tour: Icefields Parkway Drive @ nationalgeographic.com

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Linking the valleys of the Bow, Mistaya, North Saskatchewan, Sunwapta, and Athabasca Rivers, the road introduces visitors to the highest mountains in the Canadian Rockies, to glaciers and ice fields, to pristine forests, lakes, waterfalls, and wild rivers.
Begun in the early 1930s as an unemployment relief scheme, the road was opened in 1940 and improved in the 1960s. It is a generously dimensioned two-lane highway with relatively easy grades and paved shoulders, popular with bicycle riders as well as with motorists, a million of whom travel it every year. There is no special advantage in driving from southeast to northwest or vice versa, although if you are bicycling, you may benefit from tailwinds by starting out from Jasper. The description below starts from Lake Louise, and the mileages given are from there. Stopping places are well marked.
Note that between Lake Louise and Jasper the only services are at Saskatchewan Crossing and the Columbia Icefield.

Hector Lake
Ten miles [16.1 kilometers] along the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise is Hector Lake. Set at the foot of the Waputik Range and ice field, the lake is the second largest in Banff National Park. Some 10 miles [16.1 kilometers] farther, the parkway rounds the isolated mountain of Bow Peak to reach a viewpoint from which Crowfoot Glacier, the first of a series of superb glaciers, can be seen. It originally had three lobes that made it resemble a crow’s foot, but the glacier has retreated and no longer resembles its name.
Continue for another 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] to reach beautiful Bow Lake, which is fed by water from the Bow Glacier, one of the eight glaciers descending from the Waputik Icefield. The red roof of the little Num-ti-jah Lodge contrasts strikingly with the blue of the lake, the green of the forest, and the minerals in the rocks. The building is the successor to a cabin built in the early 1920s by a famous trapper and guide, Jimmy Simpson. Bow Summit, at 6,850 feet [2,087.9 meters], is the highest point along the route, as well as the watershed between the Bow and Mistaya Rivers. A short trail leads to a viewpoint overlooking Peyto Lake with its startlingly blue-green glacier-fed waters.

Upper Waterfowl Lake
The road now starts to drop down a long incline into the Mistaya Valley, passing a series of lakes for 12 miles [19.3 kilometers] before reaching Upper Waterfowl Lake. Take advantage of the lakeside viewpoint to marvel at the awe-inspiring mountains of the Continental Divide, including a 6-mile [9.7-kilometer] ridge—whose highest points are the majestic Howse Peak (10,794 feet [3,290 meters]) and the splendid pyramid-like peak of Mount Chephren (10,850 feet [3,307.1 meters]).

Mistaya Canyon
As it drops from its hanging valley into the basin of the North Saskatchewan River, the Mistaya is hard at work, and 10 miles [16.1 kilometers] along it carves itself back into the limestone as the Mistaya Canyon. A short footpath leads into the cleft with its vertical walls, potholes and a natural bridge. Saskatchewan River Crossing is 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] ahead. Some 2,000 [609.6 meters] feet below Bow Summit, the valley of the North Saskatchewan River belongs to the montane zone of the Rockies, with a mixed forest cover and a less severe climate.
Designated a Canadian heritage river in 1989, the North Saskatchewan runs 760 miles [307.6 kilometers] from its source toward Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. Early travelers experienced great difficulty in crossing the braided stream, especially when it was flooding, and even in the 1930s, highway engineers had trouble finding a suitable spot to construct a bridge. Gas, food, and lodging are available here. Just before the crossing is the junction with Hwy. 11, the David Thompson Highway, named for the great explorer and mapmaker and connecting with the town of Red Deer, 159 miles [255.9 kilometers] to the east. To the north of the crossing you can see massive Mount Wilson (11,880 feet [3,621 meters]), with its cliffs of yellowish quartzite.

Weeping Wall
By the time it reaches Weeping Wall, 17 miles [27.4 kilometers] ahead, the valley is much narrower, defined on its eastern flank by 2,000-foot [609.6-meter] cliffs streaked with waterfalls fed by melting snow high up on Cirrus Mountain. The road climbs the hairpin known as the Big Bend to two further viewpoints.
The first, the Cirrus Mountain viewpoint, commands a splendid panorama of the North Saskatchewan Valley, while the second overlooks Bridal Veil Falls and gives access to Panther Falls down a roughly constructed path.
Parker Ridge is another 8 miles [12.9 kilometers] along. A steep but very rewarding trail (1.5-mile [2.4-kilometer] round trip) rises about 900 feet [274.3 meters] through subalpine forest and tundra to an unforgettable view of the Saskatchewan Glacier, at 6 miles [9.7 kilometers] the longest of the glaciers descending from the Columbia Icefield.
At 6,637 feet [2,023 meters], Sunwapta Pass marks the boundary between Banff and Jasper National Parks and the divide between the North Saskatchewan River and the Sunwapta (“turbulent one”), which drains to the Arctic.
Early travelers found the Sunwapta Valley blocked by the Athabasca Glacier and had to climb up and around it. By the time the parkway was built, the glacier had receded, and a detour was no longer necessary.

Athabasca Glacier
A 6-mile [9.7-kilometer] drive past Parker Ridge leads to the Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier. Covering an area of about 125 square miles [323.8 square kilometers] with an estimated maximum depth of more than 1,000 feet [304.8 meters], the Columbia Icefield is the most extensive of its kind in the Rockies.
Take time to appreciate this awe-inspiring relic of the Ice Age. The ice field gives rise to a whole series of glaciers, some of them unnamed. Visible from the parkway are the Athabasca, Dome, Kitchener, and Stutfield, while the longest, the Saskatchewan, can be viewed from Parker Ridge. Meltwater from the glaciers eventually arrives in three oceans, the Arctic via the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers, the Atlantic via the North Saskatchewan, and the Pacific via the Columbia.
To service the constant stream of visitors, a new Icefield Centre (+1 780 852 6560) with a full range of interpretive displays was opened in 1996.
Take a ride in one of the chunky, 56-passenger Snocoaches to experience the glacier; the vehicle makes a thrillingly steep descent from the lateral moraine to travel some distance along the surface of the glacier, allowing passengers a brief walk on the ice before returning. For a more intimate look you can take a three-hour conducted walk; it is also quite possible to make your own way to the toe of the glacier from the parking lot at the glacial tarn known as Sunwapta Lake. A series of marker posts shows the extent to which the ice has retreated in recent years.

Sunwapta Falls
Continue along the parkway for 30 miles [48.3 kilometers] to Sunwapta Falls. Here the waters of the Sunwapta River crash into a limestone gorge threaded by a trail, which leads to a series of smaller falls and rapids.
To the north of the falls, the parkway enters the superb Athabasca Valley, the longest and widest in the Rockies. Some 764 miles [1,229.5 kilometers] long (its national park section is designated a heritage river), the Athabasca River discharges into Lake Athabasca in northwestern Alberta through a delta that gives it its Cree name—“place of reeds.”
The Goats and Glaciers Viewpoint, 11 miles [17.7 kilometers] beyond Sunwapta Falls, provides a magnificent panorama over the valley, its floor covered in a superb forest of lodgepole pine.

Athabasca Falls
A left turn along the Athabasca Parkway, 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] beyond Goats and Glaciers Viewpoint, leads a few hundred yards to the parking lot for Athabasca Falls. The Athabasca carries the most water of any Rocky Mountain river, and the 70-foot [21.3-meter] falls present a spectacle of roaring water, spray, and mist.
As you approach Jasper townsite, the dominant feature you see to the north is the mighty outline of Pyramid Mountain.