Hot Springs and Mr. G...

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Hello to all of the people in the workforce, what's it like? haha!

So, where were we! We left Calgary for Waterton Lakes National Park. We arrived nice and early which allowed us to explore the town and some walks. Lots of the hikes were still snow-covered so we opted out of many of them. The one we did was only 1 foot of snow or so. We sang songs and made noise during our walk to avoid an encounter with Mr. G (aka Grizzly).
Altho the forecast for the area was for 15 C, the gale force winds that blew thru the park made it rather chilly. Nonetheless, this park and village is by far one of the most beautiful places I've seen (see pics). We saw many deer and they make no notice of humans watching them. The bighorn sheep were more nervous around us.

From Waterton, we headed up to the #3hwy, the Crowsnest Pass, stopping as little kiosks of historical information on the area. The town of Frank Landslide is this pile of boulders (big, big pile!) that hits your eyes from Turtle Mountain on your left and goes all the way across to your right and up the other side! Holy Moly! This slide in 1903 killed 70 people, and their bodies are still there (somewhere). An amazing "don't overestimate Mother Nature" kind of spectacle. Wow! Sorry we do not have photos, but it will be on our DVD (and anyone who wants a copy can send us a message).

We drove on to Norbury Provincial Park where the weather got much much warmer. We walked around a small lake and watched a hawk dive for fish. Again, we had the entire campsite to ourselves. We also had the opportunity to have our first campfire on this trip. Marshmallows were enjoyed (I'm not going to tell you how many....).

It was great to see Darren in Cranbrook! Thanks for the coffee and tour, Darren!

Off we went to catch a Ferry from Kootenay Bay to Balfour and made our way towards Nelson on the #3A. A twisty, mountainous drive took us to a free campsite (not open for the season yet) of Kootenay Creek Prov.Park, after, of course, the Ainsworth Hot Springs (with a cave!). We were able to get out the chill from the showers of rain and snow that day. We settled into bed just as the real rain fell. Nice and cozy we stayed until morning.

Nelson is a lovely metropolis of artists, hippies and overall nice people! A great place to buy anything. Anything, you say? How about a new muffler because ours fell off!? Why yes, we just happened to have one that fits! We were that fortunate to have been held up in Nelson getting repairs as Theresa needed a new pair of hikers. And so we spent and moved on! Back to the free campsite again (after another dip in the hot springs). We were pleasantly surprised to find the door on the outhouse was actually there for the second night. On the downside, we now did not have a "poo with a view".

We had a beautiful scenic drive along the Kootenay Lake, leaves are blooming and I wore sunscreen!
Then we headed up and around the #31 North to see the Gerrard Rainbow Trout fish spawn. There was only around 4 or so there as spring has been delayed in these parts by 2 weeks. The organizers of the open house and info kiosk were biologists and BC Hydro and others. Very informative. We continued up the gravel road oohing and awing at the view as Dave drove very well around many hairpin turns (glad our van is small!). Just when we thought we would see no wildlife, MR. G shows up in our path! A young grizzly bear was scampering up the side of the mountain as we drove past! So we stopped and got out of the van and approached it with a handful of berries (just kidding!). No, we stayed far away and I was mighty glad that it was leery of us...yet it hung around trying to smell us from the changing winds, being a little more curious than a black bear would. We watched him for a minute then we let him be. (we have good bear etiquette)

We then ended our day at......yet.....another Hot Springs! Halcyon Hot Springs and RV Campground. We soaked at night and we soaked in the morning. Having over-soaked, I had to contend with slight dehydration yesterday (you are thinking, boo-frickety-hoo, how sad for her, right?).

We took the lovely free-of-charge Ferry across Arrow lake from Galena Bay to Shelter Bay and drove up to Revelstoke.

This takes us up to today! Where we settled in at a Campground in Revelstoke last night and had supper with Loreli and Brant! Thanks for the awesome food and good stories you two!

T and D

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Photos

Waterton
fancy peaks in the mist

Terex Titan at Sparwood, BC
on our way towards Cranbrook. The worlds largest tandem-axled dump truck. 610 tonne loaded capacity!

Norbury Provincial Park
all to ourselves! a nice trail to the lake. Mornings were still around zero, hence the winter gear with breakfast.

Morning at Kokanee Creek Prov Park
overlooking the lake, view from our campsite.