Prestige Inn Radium Hot Sprin Radium Hot Springs

... that bears had been frequenting the campsites, now this is a normal speach that you get in most of the National parks, but apparently they have been seen recently where we are camped so lets hope they pay us a visit . The mighty Columbia River starts here, and flows all the way to Portland Oregon, but here it is about 10 feet wide and two feet deep.

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Another attraction of hiking in the back country is the opportunity to meet like-minded travelers and share stories. Celine and Kevin, being the gregarious characters that they are, struck up a conversation with Heather and Chris from up-state New York near Lake Placid. They had driven clear across the northern states specifically to hike the ...

3 day trip
27 km ..... and a scramble

Animal sightings: Lesser Yellowlegs (bird) , deers, grouse (but no grizzlies hehe)

Flowers: lots of common fireweed throughout burned forest, indian paintbrush and other alpine wildflowers

Theme song: Buffalo Soldier (Bob Marley)

Note to self:

Go with the Floe ...... get it ? ah!

C'est quétaine Annie :P

... you right to Banff National Park. Banff and its cousin park, Jasper, to the north are in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The views of the mountains and their glaciers are phenomenal and the lakes nestled in the mountain are an incredible teal blue color that we had never seen before. The color is a product of light refraction on glacier "flour" – the glacier grinds rocks to a fine consistency ...

... a moose near the road. He was quite skittish. As soon as we pulled over for a picture, he trotted off into the woods. Then we stopped for a dip in the Radium Hot Springs Pool. The warm pool is 103° F and the cold pool is 84°F. We sat in the warm pool for almost an hour – a well deserved treat after the strenuous hike. To cap off the day there were half a dozen Bighorn Sheep along the road at the last curve back into our campground.

... planned on camping (it never is really camping in our motorhome !) without hook-ups, but were pleasantly surprised to find a site available with electricity.

After arrival, we checked out the park visitor center and also made a reservation for a white-water rafting trip near Yoho National Park next Monday the 6th of July. Highway 93 through Kootenay is known as a major wildlife corridor. Our disappointment for the day was not seeing any wildlife at all.

... would secure us a spot. As we drove slowly uphill, dragging the 12,000 lb fifth wheel behind us, we found a few unsuitable vacancies and the Dodge began telling us it did not like this slow-going, uphill dragging, even in the lowest gear and the transmission overheat light began flashing. Thankfully, we were cresting the hill and began our descent with the intention of continuing to Radium Hot Springs to find a private park. Oh, but ...

... of packed gravel-you can't get a tent peg in even with a hammer! It means that the tents aren't as waterproof because you can't tighten the fly and we couldn't set up our mosquito tent at all. Also the gravel is sharp and hurts you're knees and can't be good for the bottom of the tent. If you try to be sneaky and set up a tent off the gravel pad, you get threatening notes from parks staff left on your picnic table in the night. Despite the ...

... sun fade behind the approaching mountains. Now it is dark and we are listening to some kickin tunes and eating up the pavement steadily. We were supposed to be in Salmo yesterday so we will pretty much drive all night. Kev just commented on what a pity it was that we couldn't see the amazing scenery passing us by. I look up at the army of stars materializing on this cloudless night and wonder what the heck he is talking about.

I managed to take three separate shots of windmills: a row of them across the mountains, an old windmill and a new windmill turning with its' mystic beauty in a field. When I got home I "photoshopped" the 3 shots into one. A fun learning experience.


The mountains ...