Day 31- June 23- Columbia Glacier

We were super excited when we woke up this morning to head to the glacier because this was the most beautiful weather we have had yet.

Fortunately, the drive to the glacier was on the Icefield Parkway and the sun today made that drive even more gorgeous.

When we arrived and checked in, we rode a short four minute bus over to the glacier crawlers.

There are 23 of these glacial crawlers in the world – 22 of which are around owned by this company. The other one is owned by the US government and is located in Antarctica for scientific study.

Each one of these cost $1.3 million to make – partly because each one of the tires cost $5000.

We were told that this iceberg is about 900 feet deep. With that being said – it is receding at a rate of 20 meters (roughly 65 feet) per year.

Once you took the glacial machine onto the glacier, you were able to get out and walk around. They did ask that you stayed within the boundaries of the areas that they have tested.

On the actual glacier itself – there are many creeks and crevices with small rivers from glacial melt.

My boys like to touch the rivers and waters wherever they go – they realize that they are still cold :-)

The size of the glacial machine compared to a seven and nine-year-old.

After that – we did the glacier skywalk which has a glass bottom. It's a little bit unsettling when you step out on it for the first time.

Here you can see Logan sitting down on the floor of the glacial skywalk – with the ground below the glass bottom.

We were pretty excited to see four mountain goats and two mountain goat kids while we were on the skywalk.

We had good luck with animal viewing on our way back to the campsite.

We also saw these mountain goats-  two adults and an older kid.

We saw this guy along the road.

And then this guy-  we love to see the bears and we have been very lucky this time to see a lot of bears.

We head out of Canada tomorrow and we are pleased that we have seen 10 bear.  We have not seen a bull elk, moose or caribou-  but we are thrilled with the bear representation.