August 16th and 17th: Golden BC, Wapta Falls and Radium Springs.

Our first trip through the mountains….on a very smokey day. A new fire started up just off the Trans-Canada at Dead man flats yesterday and shrouded Calgary and the mountains in a veil of smoke.

We drove by the spot on the way to Golden…2 hours 42 minutes said Google.

There were hints of shadowy mountains behind the curtain as we made our way through the Rockies. Interestingly, despite the steep mountain roads, up and down, fuel economy was actually about a third to a half better than hauling across Saskatchewen…..

Stop on the road………..

The winding roads promised great beauty….on another day….!!!!

The last part before Golden, Kicking Horse Pass is under construction with a plan to make it 4 lane……the roadworks there make for a steep winding…impossible seeming corners with 30 feet of shiny trailer behind you…it was a hairy scary ride……and I was not even driving (thanks Scott..!!)

The campground, Golden Municipal campground was easy to find, easy to back in to, and very handy for the walk to the downtown. I can’t believe I did not take any pictures of the campground……Scott took one of the river behind it…

The rail line runs along the far bank of the river….those big freight trains with hundreds of carriages..they are NOT quiet in the night……….

First day there we picked a relatively short/easy walk to Wapta Falls in Yoho National Park ( https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canada/british-columbia/wapta-falls ) as we were not too sure how much was going to be visible as it was still pretty smoky…

Wapta Falls trail is up a little logging road, sharp right turn off the trans-Canada..!!!

Well groomed fairly busy trail…..

Tuesday was forecast to rain all day….so the plan was to go to Radium Springs where raining all day would not be a problem…but it would also, hopefully, clear the smoke enough to give us a good day on Wed for Lake Louise.

Radium Provincial Park…..the drive was a bit more revealing having had a bit of rain overnight….( https://www.hotsprings.ca/radium )

Little puffs of misty clouds sitting on the mountains and some actual sky…!!!

Radium park is a very impressive entrance…

They open the doors for the springs at 11…but people start queuing way before that….. according to staff it can often be an hour wait……No pictures in the spring water……but it was……fabulous….!!!!

The temperature of the water is…well just spot on….and quite perfect with a little bit of rain falling on your head…….the minerals in the water make your nerve endings tingle…..in a very warm pleasant kind of way……..Im not sure how long we stayed in…..but if we lived anywhere close to here….we would be here a lot….!!! ($7.46 adult entry fee..!!)

From here it was over to Invermere to try and get lunch…..Invermere is mostly closed Mondays and Tuesdays…..so no dice….nice little town tho….

More drizzly rain and more forecast for overnight so we returned to Golden with high hopes for clear skies tomorrow for the turquoise lakes……