Day 6 in the Canadian Rockies was an opportunity to do one of Jasper's classic hikes, Wilcox Pass. The trail begins at an elevation of 6,690 ft (2,039 m) near the Wilcox Pass campground. It started out steep, the first couple of miles zigzagging up the mountainside for most of the trail's 1,100 ft elevation gain.

On the way up, we could see across the Icefields Parkway, a highway through the Rockies with stunning views, to the Athabasca Glacier. Two days before, we took a SnoCoach onto the Athabasca Glacier itself, and got to walk on this mile-wide strip of the vast Columbia Icefield. (See my photo album about the "Icefields Parkway") Mt. Athabasca dominated the horizon, and I remembered two climbers I had overheard at the Columbia Icefield Center, surveying the mountain from afar as they plotted their ascent to the summit of this 11,454-foot (3,491 m) peak.

This moderately difficult hike was 5.6 miles (9 km) out-and-back, taking us from thick forest to green, vast alpine meadows near the top of Wilcox Peak. The trail started at 6,690 ft (2,039 m), and the turnaround point at Wilcox Pass, designated by a trail marker and a few hiker-made cairns, stood at an elevation of 7,790 ft (2,374 m).

This hike offered spectacular views of Mt. Athabasca and a cursory peek at the Columbia Icefield at its top. We were blessed with a sunny day with cold, mild winds, and the effect in this wide open meadow with glacier-clad mountains nearby was indescribable contentment and serenity.

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