Athabasca flow

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 8th-largest of Canada's estimated 2 million lakes.