Mountain Road As Flat
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17 Maclean's Magazme, July 15, 1938 T " \S quite dark now, and we were anxious to getto When completed the 150-mile Jasper-BanH the ()ravcyard as soon as posc:iblc. This me:} seem a highway will tra verse one of the most spec I ·tran~c st.:tte of 3ffair..,, but it was not so queer as it sounds. "Graveyard" ic: the name gt\'Cn to an old tacular scenic routes in North America Indian camp <;tte ttuatL>d about half,,ay bct,,ccn the \\ell hno\\71 Alberta mount.am resorts of Banff and Jasper. \ ccc.!·sible until recently only by several days journey by pad" train or on foot thts httle kno'' n spot is marked only By EDWARD E. BISHOP b:, a \\arden's cabm and two sd.., of old tepee poles. Belying its depressing name Grave) ard is beautifully situated on the flats at the junction of two rivers, surrounded by some of Canada's most impressive peaks. The valley of the North Saskatchewan at this point is more than a mile ''Ide and perfectly flat. From the west, the valley of the Alexandra (the old West Branch of the North Fork of the North Saskatchewan) comes m, not quite so broad but just Mountain Road as flat. Graveyard is thC' place that will represent the Halfway Point on the new Jasper-Banff Hi ~h\\ay , being almost equally dic;;tant from tho~ two points. Still comparatively unknown to tourists, this new road Will ~tretch for approxi mately 150 miles through the heart of Albt!rta's hinterland. It will join the crowded tourist centres of Banff and Lake Louise, on the transcontinental route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the equally popular resort of Jasper on the main line of the Canadian National Railways. Working from both ends, the Dominion Government has been construclmg this highway for ten years. By the end of the 1937 season, there was open to tourists some seventy five miles of completed road on the Jasper end, and abo'!t fort\ -five mjles on the Banff end. The 35-mile gap w1ll undoubtedly bt. bridged by a tote ~oad during 1938. Just \1 hen the conc;lruclion ''ill be fimshed depends entirely upon the amount of funds ava1lable for the project. In any case although neither section of the htghway as yet reaci1C:;S to Graveyard, the dnve from either ~ke Louise or Jasper to the end of the present road constructiOn equals, tf not o;urpas~s. any of the mountam trips at present avail able to tourists on th1s continent. To reach Graveyard from Banff had taken us almost three days of steady hikmg, on top of an eighty-mile automobile drive from the town of Banff to the end of the gravel on the new highway. Our route first took us along the old road that parallels the main line of the C. P. R. as far as Lake Lomse station. It IS here that the new road branches 9ff to the northwest up the valley of the Bow River toward Jasper. Fol1owmg up the Bow, the highway reaches beautiful Bow Lake, which constitutes the head waters of the Bow R.tver. To the westward, across the lal{e from the road, the Bow Glacier tumbles down the cliffs from the Wapta Icefields into the valley and melts, to form the source of the river which we had been following. Above the lake to the northwest is the height of land known as the Bow Summit. Just under 6,900 feet above sea level, this is the highest point reached by the as yet uncompleted highway between Lal{e Louise and Jasper. Aporoaching it as we did from the south, over a completed section of the road, we could not believe that we had gained 2,000 feet from Lake Louise. The valley floor is so flat and the gradient so regular that there is no impression of climb ing The hair-raising stretches of road clinging to the side of a cliff, so often associated with mountain drives, are entirely missing. The turns are fe" , and are long sweeping curves rather than hairpin bends. Even the most nervous Top: An un na med lake on the Jasper-Banff highway. motonst, fresh off the prairies, could negotiate this trail with ease. • Lower left: The Great Divide from Mt. Castleguard. Right: Route of Jasper-Banff highway. At the summit we left the car. to take a half-mile walk through the woods to a promontory known as the Peyto Lookout. This viewpoint hang~ 800 feet above Peyto Lake, hike, not an automobile ride. There was nothing for it but go some distance above the F orks to a point where the river which is of an opaque apple-green hue and is almost entirely to shoulder our packs, which seemed to weigh a great deal spreads out over the gravel flats and divides into about surrounded by the nearly black color of dense pine forests. at this time, and start wallcing. fifteen channels, the total distance from one side to the The lake is fed by Pe}'to Glacter, a long curvmg tongue of other being about a mile. F ortunately the complete lack of ice that comes down from the Great Divide to the west. Beau t iful and Impressive inhabitants in the neighborhood permitted us to remove our Looking north, the view on clear days extends over fifty trousers and wade these channels, the deepest of whtch miles, down the valley of t he M istaya and up the valley of UE T O the heavy timber, the trail down the Mistaya came up to our hips. Since the Howse is entirely glacier fed, the North Fork. T he eastern side of these valleys is D is probably the most uninteresting section of the whole it is important to cross it at about ten in the morning, at bounded by the three giant peaks, M urchison, ~7 ilson and trip from Banff to Jasper. The monotony is broken, how! which time it is lowest. This represents the time of least Coleman. On the western sides are peaks too numerous ever, by the sudden appearance of Waterfowl Lakes. At melting at its source in the Fresh.field lcefield, some fifteen to mention. the point where these twin pools are encountered, the valley miles away. Once over the wat~rshed, the character of the journey is quite narrow. There is enough, but only enough, room From the Forks to Graveyard, the trip up the North changes. T he elevation drops about 500 feet so suddenly for the road to pass by the lakes to the east. From the west, Fork is beautiful and impressive, consistently interesting that the road is forced to make a series of long switchbacks the impressive east face of Mount Chephron appears to throughout the whole distance. T he trail hes between the to get do\\ n the hill. \Ve are now in a different t ype of drop directly mto the water. The top of this steep, cone rushing river and the rock wall of 1\IIount ·wilson, "hich country. Whereas the valley of the Bow was broad and shaped peak towers nearly 5,000 feet above the lakes. presents an almost unbroken hne of buttresses for the full fia~-bott~med and comparatively open, the valley of the Plunging back into the forest, the trail skirts the base fifteen miles, rising a sheer 2,000 feet above the road sttt.:. lv!t:taya IS V-shaped and heavily wooded. The scenery is of Mount MurchisOn for almost ten miles, until it reaches To the west the terrain is broken by several side valle\ s Vl.Slble only through breaks in the trees. t he Forks. Here the Mistaya from the south meets the giving startling glm1pses of the snow-capped peah.-s along . The Mistaya, v. hich has its source in the P eyto Glacier, North Fork from the north, immediately after the latter the Great Divide, in the distance. This, we constderf'd, lS what used to be known as the South Fork, or Little Fork, has been joined by the Howse R.tver from the west. The was nature at its best, and constituted perfection to us in of the North Saskatchewan River. It runs northwest to Howse was originally known as the Middle Fork of the spite of the weariness induced by the many miles of trail ~t;et the. other br~nches of that river at the Big Forks. North Saskatchewan. behind us. It taya tr; an Indtan name meaning Little Bear. Conse A large bridge, now being built just below the Forks, will But the warden at Graveyard was at home (for the first quently, wardens, packers and other habitues of the locality solve the problem of crossmg this water as far as the tourist tune m weeks), and a night of hospitality put us back into ~~lly refer to t his river as Bear Creek. The Mistaya is concerned. But the situation presented considerably shape. We were now ready for a foray up to the Columbta v:hi ey• then, !~rms t~ second convenient corridor down more difficulty to the hiker of former years. The mam nver Icefields. B~h th~ pratr:e tounst will be able to drive in safety. is much too wide and deep to be forded on foot. The Mis The tourist, if he msists on staying with his car after the <~ t this was m June, 1937, and the corridor was not yet taya and the N orth Fork are spanned by tote bridges, but road 1s completed, Will be forced to continue northward :j.