Bow Glacier

The Voyages of RV Shearwater (3)

The first time I visited the turquoise waters of the glacier-fed Bow Lake was in August 2019, during a road trip to Rocky Mountain House and the Icefields Parkway via Saskatchewan Crossing. The casual walk around the lake shore in the summer heat at least registered the presence of the glacier and waterfall at its western edge. I made a note to revisit this source of the Bow River, which provides nearly sixty percent of Calgary’s water supply.

Bow Lake and Bow Glacier, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Aug 2, 2019. © J. Ashley Nixon

Bow Glacier, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Aug 2, 2019. © J. Ashley Nixon

Bow Lake

Our second visit came five years later, in April 2024. We were insufficiently equipped to tackle the deep winter snow accumulation, which caused us to plunge to our waists repeatedly. After just a few hundred meters along the trail, we had to abandon the hike at Bow Lake. I resolved to return in the fall, this time with snowshoes.

Bow Lake and Bow Glacier, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Apr 25, 2024. © J. Ashley Nixon

The return was booked for November 15 with Jennifer and Aspen the Airedale. Following a dry first two weeks of the month in Calgary, I was surprised by how thick the snow was as I drove RV Shearwater through the Banff National Park checkpoint on Highway 93. I grew more concerned as we ventured around a snowplough parked up on the side of the road. My thoughts turned to the prospects of a whiteout (I have been challenged before with a sudden snowstorm in September on this road) and yet another abandoned trip, but the sun came up, no more snow came down, and we were good and safe for a day’s adventure. An unplanned detour through deep snow in the forest (we followed the wrong footprints) warranted the use of the snowshoes, but we soon got back on track across the icy delta of glacial debris that fills the western part of Bow Lake. The snowshoes could stay on our packs.

Bow River, Portal Peak and Mount Thompson (right), Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Nov 15, 2024. © J. Ashley Nixon

Mountain Views

We climbed up the steep staircase built from railway sleepers on the side of the river canyon and into the glacial moraine for spectacular views of Mount Thompson (3,065m/10,056ft), Portal Peak (2,790m/9,153ft), Mount Rhondda (3,055m/10,023ft) and St Nicholas Peak (2,970m/9,744ft). The receding Bow Glacier, an outflow from the Wapta Icefield that straddles the Intercontinental Divide between Alberta and British Columbia, lies above a 154 m high rock wall and cannot be seen from here. The cascade of the Bow Glacier Falls was frozen. Another visit must be planned for spring next year to see the glacier’s snout, Iceberg Lake, and the waterfall in flow from the trail leading towards the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) Bow Hut.

Moraine and rock wall in front of Bow Glacier, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Nov 15, 2024. © J. Ashley Nixon

Portal Peak, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Nov 15, 2024. © J. Ashley Nixon

RV Shearwater and Castle Mountain, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Nov 15, 2024. © J. Ashley Nixon

Further reading

The Bow Glacier and other glaciers of the Canadian Rockies are described in the following publication:

Ommanney, C.S.L (2002). Glaciers of Canada. Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World. US Geological Survey Professional Paper.