Athabasca Glacier and Lake Louise......and my crying!

So, up and at em! We left Jasper and the only request (demand) was that we stopped at Athabasca Falls, before heading to the Columbian Icefields.
The falls were only around 200m from the carpark (which by 9.30am was almost full!) and they didn't disappoint. The water falls down beside a huge rock, leaving two falls side by side! amazing stuff, but hard to photograph with the light directly hitting the falls from the front......oh well!

we drove casually through the mountains, again, photos cannot do the scenery justice. Just a lonely drive with us, and a few thousand others, with a few thousand RV's.

The Columbian Glacier is huge, although we only see a very small portion of it. Jack loved it- hearing all about how the glacier is formed, how ice isn't the same as snow, and how it takes 3 years to compact 4 metres of snow into 1 metre of ice. It is also quite sad that they think the glacier will have retreated and disappeared in around 70 years. That's it- gone forever.

Th specially made trucks that drive you onto the ice field are amazing! Jack loved it.

As we were on there we heard a huge crack and bang, we looked up to see a small avalanche on the top of the glacier......let me say it was so loud that i looked to where the boys were.....just in case! In the photo all you see is the puff of ice...but believe me, it was rather scary!

We then did the Skywalk- a metal semi circle structure that literally is built on the side of a mountain. it has a glass bottom. Needless to say, i tentatively walked out, and DID NOT look down-although Jack was quite keen for me to do so!

Then it was on to the Fairmont Lake Louise. Well, lets just say the hype I had created about this place did not disappoint. The place is amazing. We discovered that so many people want to see Lake Louise (which has the hotel on its shores, but you need to drive up to look at it, and park in a carpark behind the hotel) that people were walking 2-3 kms up the hill to get to it as there weren't any parks left!

Truly stunning part of the world.
We checked in and were taken to our room-until then, i hadn't seen the lake. I was so excited to see it, but as it had been so long coming, I also didn't want to be disappointed.
Well, we weren't. It was truly spectacular- the green of the water is a sight to behold and Mick and I just sat on the balcony and watched.
So surreal.
Again, all pics on here are totally unedited......when i get home I will pretty some up!