This time of the year is about the best time to visit the Jasper National Park. Less busy than the summer and the winter, but beautiful too. So, having been blessed with a perfect morning by the weather gods, we drove to the Columbia Icefield – the largest ice field in the Rocky Mountains, and did a hike to the toe of the spectacular Athabasca Glacier.

Although the glacier still appears massive, it’s a mere fraction of what it used to be once upon a time. The signs along the hike mark its gradual retreat, so we could learn how much it had receded. The perspective is humbling – only forty years ago, the path we were walking on, would have been under a thick layer of ice. As the glacier shrank, it left behind a lunar-like, plant-less wasteland of crumbled boulders and gravel.

The hike was an undisputed highlight of the day.