Pictures cannot do a drive like this justice. Glacier capped mountain peaks surround you as far as the eye can see. One passes raging rivers while driving through a deep green forest along cliffs in a rugged valley. There isn't a town for an hours drive in either direction-this is Rogers Pass.
Just to be clear, this is not in the US Glacier National Park. Canada also has a Glacier National Park and because it's further north than Montana, there are more Glaciers and they are bigger. Rogers Pass takes one up 1330 meters to traverse the Selkirk Mountains. It's along the Trans-Canada highway-a few hours west of Banff, past Lake Louise and then Golden in the Canadian Rockies.
Rogers Pass gets about thirty feet or ten meters of snow each year. To control when avalanches happen, they use howitzers to blast the mountains. It's better to fight nature then to sit back and take it. Snow, rocks and trees falling down a thousand or so meters causes a lot of damage.
There are snow shelters for the highway and the railway. They constantly upgrade the pass and try to minimize the time it is closed. This has been an ongoing battle since the late 19th century. One could get dozens of meters of snow accumulating at the bottom of the mountains so it's easier just to go under it.
Hundreds of workers and adventurers have lost their lives in Rogers Pass. Avalanches are no joke but because of the heavy snowfall, backcountry skiers love this area. It's about an hours west of Revelstoke often called Revelstuck because the mountain passes along the only road through town can be closed for days during a snowstorm or after an avalanche.
There is a memorial monument to commemorate those who lost their lives working and traversing Rogers Pass. This was an important part of the first coast-to-coast railway in Canada. At one point going through this pass was your only option north of the 49th parallel. Rogers Pass played its unique role in unifying Canada.
We drove through the pass twice last year. The first time just to go camping here in Glacier Park and then to visit Revelstoke. Then a second time on our trip to Seattle and Vancouver. The first time smoke ruined the view so the blue sky pictures were from the second time in September when the skies were clear.
The hiking in this park is epic, there are trails up to the glaciers that are the source of the Illecillewaet river which flows by the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk. I promise to share more stories about some of these amazing hikes soon, one of the more tamer ones was the Hemlock Grove Boardwalk. We certainly made the most of our Summer Weekends and it's been busy catching up with all the stories. Thank you for reading!
All photos taken with an s22 and are unfiltered
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@crypticat/hemlock-grove-boardwalk-in-glacier-national-park-canada
The biggest benefit of visiting such beautiful places is that one's mind relaxes a lot and one gets a lot of happiness by seeing such natural sights.