Tag: glaciers

Tok to Anchorage – Part 2 of 4

September 14, 2025

As I travel between Tok upstate and Anchorage near the water, the road would take me on a long open stretch between Glennallen and Palmer. A little short of halfway the road rises to an elevation of about 3,000′ (Tok and Glennallen are at around 1,500′). There was a constant string of mountains to the south and I started to see snow on some of them, and the telltale cloud cover which seems to occur if there is snow or a glacier at high elevation.

Some of the mountains shown above have a solid coating of snow. And before I had a chance to stop and get to a place to take those photos, I could tell that the clouds on the right hand side were obscuring an even taller peak covered in snow. I believe that tallest mountain is either Mount Witherspoon (12,012 feet elevation) or Mount Marcus Baker (13,176 feet elevation). And each of the peaks in the photo, snow covered or not, are separate mountains in that “small” area. When I got to Anchorage I asked if there was a map showing the locations of all the glaciers along the coast and was shocked to learn that there are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and there are no maps to make identification easy.

Here are a few shots I took with the digital camera and a zoom lens.

And back to my smartphone for the rest of this group as I continue driving towards Anchorage.

That mountain ahead of me had rain falling from the clouds above it. The next ones are what I call the “brown mountains” which appeared to be shorter and without snow on them.

With clouds behind them, that group appeared to be closer to the highway I was on, and were perhaps obscuring the view of other mountains closer to the coast.

Once I got past Eureka Roadhouse the mountains would start to play hide and seek (in Part 3).

Golden to Jasper NP – getting to the Icefields Parkway

August 8, 2025

Almost all of my drive northward to Jasper National Park involved driving on Highway 93N, which I turned left onto after having driven northeast through Yoho National Park when I left Thursday morning from where I was staying in Golden. The photos I posted previously of several lakes (Herbert, Bow and Peyto) and mountains were actually taken in Banff National Park, a large section of which I would drive through to get to the Parkway. As I post this next set of photos I realize I am STILL in Banff National Park and am still making my way north towards Jasper NP and the town of Jasper. Once I cross the line into Jasper National Park the road will become what is called the Icefields Parkway, so named because of the many mountains which have snow and ice packs (glaciers, or ice fields) on their higher elevations year-round, including these mountains which are still in Banff NP.

The day started out cloudy, and with some low clouds near the mountains. It was rather cold and windy which made it feel quite raw. Here are some of the many glaciers I saw as I drove north.

A closer look at two of the peaks in the photo above from a slightly different angle:

Again with these mountains, it is hard to name names and give elevations because there are rarely signs identifying them. There are two very large icefields I will come to that definitely have names and are the main focus of specific tours which take paying customers directly to them, or to an exclusive observations platform which allow them to take photos. I will point them out when I get to them in the next post.

This is looking back after I started climbing the road through Wilcox Pass:

Driving north through Sunwapta Pass and Wilcox Pass will result in an overall altitude change and will also signify the transition from Banff NP to Jasper NP, and the official start of the Icefields Parkway.

A little color at the viewpoint from which I took the preceding photo:

And a big fat crow, sitting on the ground watching all the tourists getting out of their cars and taking photos of the view looking back at the lower elevation we had just come from.

And a wider view looking back. These photos were all taken August 8, about a month ago as I actually post this. As you can see it was an overcast, albeit clear (air-wise) day. I drove through this same area a few days ago in slightly less ideal conditions due to wildfire smoke which is now being thrust into British Columbia and the Candian Rockies from other parts of Canada, and took more photos which, when it comes time to post them, will show a slightly different look.

Even in the less than ideal conditions cloud-wise, I was glad I got here in early August when I did.

Up next – The Columbia Icefields