The Glacier Skywalk: a glass floor 280 metres above the Sunwapta Valley

A platform over the valley, not a walk on the ice

The Glacier Skywalk is one of the most photographed stops on the Icefields Parkway, and also one of the most misunderstood before people actually arrive. It is a fixed, cantilevered walkway that projects out from the valley wall, with a section of glass flooring, suspended roughly 280 metres above the floor of the Sunwapta Valley below the Columbia Icefield. What it delivers is a wide, elevated view across the valley toward the glaciers and peaks around it, including sightlines toward the Andromeda and Athabasca sides of the icefield.

What it does not deliver is any contact with a glacier’s surface. You never step onto ice at the Skywalk. That distinction matters because the name and the marketing photos — a glass floor, mountains in the background — lead a fair number of visitors to expect something closer to the Ice Explorer glacier ride, or the roped, crampons-on guided glacier walk.

Those are separate experiences, at the same general area but genuinely different in what you’re standing on. This page covers the Skywalk platform itself: how you get there, what the visit actually involves, the height and the glass floor, the season, and how it’s typically bundled with the Ice Explorer on a single ticket.

Where it is and how you get there

The Glacier Skywalk sits on the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 North), a short drive south of the Columbia Icefield Centre, on the Jasper side of the icefield rather than tucked into the Centre’s own parking lot. Almost everyone reaches it the same way: check in at the Columbia Icefield Centre, then board a shuttle bus that carries you the few kilometres down the Parkway to the Skywalk entrance. The shuttle is included with your Skywalk admission and runs on a loop through the day, so there’s rarely a long wait once you’re checked in, though midsummer afternoons can bunch up departures.

There is a small roadside pullout with a drop-off point near the Skywalk itself, useful if you’re being driven or dropped off by someone not stopping at the Icefield Centre, but general visitor access — ticket checks, gift shop, washrooms, and the bulk of parking — happens at the Centre. If you’re driving yourself up the Parkway from Banff or Lake Louise, budget the Icefield Centre as your actual destination and treat the Skywalk as a short shuttle hop from there, not a separate roadside stop you drive to directly.

From Banff, the Columbia Icefield area is about 180 kilometres up the Parkway, roughly 2 hours 15 minutes without stops; from Jasper it’s the shorter approach, under 105 kilometres and about an hour and a half. Fuel and cell service are both limited along this stretch — see the gas and cell coverage along the Icefields Parkway notes before committing to a same-day round trip.

Walking the platform: what actually happens

Once the shuttle drops you at the Skywalk entrance, the visit follows a fixed, self-guided loop rather than a timed tour. You walk out along an interpretive trail built along the cliff edge, with signage on the geology, glaciers, and wildlife of the Sunwapta Valley, before reaching the platform itself. The walkway extends out from the rock face on a steel structure, curving to the glass-floored section near its outer end.

The glass panel is the part everyone comes for, and it’s a genuinely small, clearly marked portion of a longer walkway — most of the structure is solid decking. Standing on the glass and looking straight down puts open air and about 280 metres of drop between your feet and the valley floor, with the Sunwapta River threading through the forest far below. It’s the kind of view that reads very differently in a photo than it feels standing on it; even visitors who don’t consider themselves bothered by heights often notice a genuine jolt the first time they step fully onto the glass.

If heights aren’t for you, none of this is mandatory. The loop is built so you can walk the entire route, take in the same valley views, and simply step around or bypass the glass section on the solid flooring beside it. Nobody is funnelled onto the glass against their will, and staff don’t push visitors past their comfort level.

Past the glass section, the walkway continues to a viewing area with sightlines toward Mount Kitchener, Mount Athabasca, and the broader glacier-carved terrain of the Columbia Icefield, before looping back toward the entrance. Interpretive panels along the way cover the retreat of the surrounding glaciers over the past century — a subject explained in more depth on the glaciers retreat explained page — and the wildlife that moves through the Sunwapta Valley below.

How long to plan for

Set aside 45 minutes to an hour for the platform and interpretive trail itself, which is enough time to walk the full loop, take photos on and around the glass section, and read the signage without feeling rushed. Add the shuttle ride each way from the Columbia Icefield Centre, plus check-in, and a standalone Skywalk visit runs closer to 1.5 hours door to door.

Most travellers don’t visit the Skywalk alone. Because it shares a check-in point and shuttle system with the Ice Explorer glacier tour, and both are commonly sold as a single combined ticket, the two together typically run about 3 to 3.5 hours total once you account for both shuttle rides and time at each stop. If you’re building a single day along the Parkway around both attractions, that block needs to be planned for rather than squeezed between other stops — the one day versus two days on the Icefields Parkway breakdown walks through how it fits against Peyto Lake, Bow Lake, and the rest of the stop-by-stop route.

When it’s open

The Glacier Skywalk operates on the same general season as the Columbia Icefield Centre and the Ice Explorer: roughly April or May through October, closing over winter. Exact opening and closing dates shift from year to year with snow conditions on the access road and at the site itself, so treat those months as a working window rather than fixed dates, particularly at the edges of the season in early spring and late October.

Period	Glacier Skywalk operation
November to March	Closed. No access, no exceptions.
Late April to mid-June	Opens gradually; early-season dates can shift with weather
Late June to early September	Full daily operation, most departures, highest demand
Mid-September to October	Operating, tapering toward month-end as conditions turn

There is no winter version of this attraction. If you’re planning a winter trip along the Icefields Parkway, the Skywalk, the Icefield Centre, and the Ice Explorer are all off the table for that visit; winter travel on this stretch is about the drive and the roadside viewpoints, not these seasonal attractions.

Combining it with the Ice Explorer: one ticket, two stops

The Glacier Skywalk and the Ice Explorer glacier ride are run by the same operator, share the same check-in point at the Columbia Icefield Centre, and are frequently sold together on a single combined ticket. That combination is worth understanding clearly, because it’s the single most common way people actually experience the area: the Ice Explorer for time on the ice of Athabasca Glacier, and the Skywalk for the elevated view across the valley — two distinct products, one admission.

This page focuses on the Skywalk itself and deliberately doesn’t cover the Ice Explorer ride in detail; that’s covered fully on its own Ice Explorer guide. What’s worth knowing here is simply that most tour options bundle both:

Option	What’s included	Best for
a Columbia Icefield tour with the Glacier Skywalk	Transport from Canmore, Ice Explorer glacier stop, and Skywalk admission	First-timers who want both signature stops without booking separately
a Calgary departure covering the Skywalk, Peyto Lake, and Bow Glacier	Full-day Parkway coverage plus both Icefield attractions	Calgary-based travellers doing the Parkway as a single long day
a day tour combining the Skywalk with the Icefield and Parkway waterfalls	Skywalk, Ice Explorer, and stops at Athabasca and Sunwapta Falls	Travellers who want the falls folded into the same day
a full Icefields Parkway and glacier tour with Skywalk included	A guided run of the entire Parkway with both Icefield stops built in	Anyone who’d rather not drive the Parkway themselves at all

Buying a combined ticket through one of these is usually better value than paying for the Skywalk and the Ice Explorer as two separate walk-up admissions at the Centre, and it removes the logistics of timing two separate shuttle queues on your own. If you’re staying in Jasper rather than Banff or Canmore, the same combined format is available closer to your base, which is worth checking before you assume a Banff-departure tour is your only option.

What to wear and bring

Dress for an outdoor walkway on a mountainside, not for the glacier itself — you’ll be on solid ground and steel decking the entire visit, just at altitude and often with wind. A windproof layer is worth having regardless of the season; the platform sits exposed on the valley wall and catches more wind than the parking lot at the Icefield Centre. Closed-toe shoes with decent grip are enough; nothing technical is required, and the walkway itself is wheelchair and stroller accessible along its full length, including the glass section.

Bring a camera or a charged phone — this is one of the more photographed stops on the entire Parkway, and the wait for an unobstructed shot on the glass panel can run a few minutes on a busy afternoon. Sunglasses help; the light off the valley and surrounding ice can be sharp even under cloud.

The one mix-up worth avoiding

If there’s a single thing to get right before you go, it’s this: the Glacier Skywalk is a structure suspended above the Sunwapta Valley, built into the rock face on the valley wall — it is not a walk onto a glacier, and you will not touch ice here. Visitors expecting a glacier experience from the name alone are sometimes disappointed to find a viewing platform instead, while visitors who understand what it actually is tend to rate it as one of the better stops on the whole Icefields Parkway drive. Pair it with the Ice Explorer if you want both the platform view and time standing on the ice; treat them as separate line items on your day, because that’s exactly what they are.

For a longer trip that folds the Skywalk and the rest of the Icefield stops into a full Rockies route, see the four days Banff to Jasper Icefields itinerary or the standalone Icefields Parkway road trip plan, both of which build in the time this stop genuinely needs rather than treating it as a quick roadside photo op.

Glacier Skywalk about the platform above the Sunwapta Valley

Is the Glacier Skywalk the same thing as walking on a glacier?

No. The Skywalk is a viewing platform built out from the valley wall, with a glass floor section, suspended above the Sunwapta Valley. You look down at the valley and across at glaciers from a fixed structure; you never set foot on ice. Walking on an actual glacier is the separate Ice Explorer stop or a guided glacier walk, both at the Columbia Icefield a short drive away.

How high above the valley is the Glacier Skywalk?

The platform sits about 280 metres above the floor of the Sunwapta Valley. That figure describes the drop beneath the glass, not the elevation above sea level, which is lower than the Columbia Icefield itself since the Skywalk is built into the valley wall rather than up on the icefield plateau.

Do I need to buy the Ice Explorer tour to visit the Skywalk?

No, the Skywalk sells as a standalone ticket, but most visitors buy it combined with the Ice Explorer glacier tour since both depart from the Columbia Icefield Centre and pairing them avoids a second admission and a second shuttle wait. Combined tickets are usually the better value if you want both stops.

Is the Glacier Skywalk open in winter?

No. It’s a seasonal attraction, typically running from around April or May through October, matching the Columbia Icefield Centre’s own operating season. The walkway, shuttle service, and glass platform are not maintained for winter conditions, and there’s no way to visit outside the posted season.

Is the glass floor safe, and what if I’m afraid of heights?

The structure is engineered and inspected like any public viewing platform, and the glass panel is a small, clearly marked section of a longer walkway with solid decking on either side. You can walk the entire loop and stay on solid flooring the whole way if you’d rather skip the glass section, so a fear of heights doesn’t rule out the visit.

How long should I plan for the Glacier Skywalk?

Budget 45 minutes to an hour for the platform itself, plus the shuttle ride each way from the Columbia Icefield Centre. If you’re combining it with the Ice Explorer, plan on roughly 3 to 3.5 hours total for both stops together, door to door.

Can I drive directly to the Glacier Skywalk and park there?

There’s a small roadside pullout and drop-off area near the Skywalk on the Icefields Parkway, but general access to the walkway is via the shuttle bus that runs from the Columbia Icefield Centre, which is where tickets are checked and where most parking is available.