Description
One of the most important rivers in Alberta, the glacier-fed Athabasca rises in the Columbia Icefield here in Jasper National Park. It snakes amid the park's many peaks – including Mount Kerkeslin, looming large in our photo – before tumbling over Athabasca Falls just a stone's throw from this pebble-strewn spot. The river's cross-province course, flowing generally northeast, covers 765 miles before emptying into Lake Athabasca, the eighth-largest of Canada's estimated two million lakes.