British Columbia - Part II

The next day morning went to the outdoor water park where we were staying, then to the Lussier Hot Springs near Whiteswan Lake, also about a 40 minute drive away. To get to these hot springs, we had to traverse a perilous, mountainside road. Some passes were only wide enough for one car, with a few pullouts along the way to let oncoming trucks with HUGE CAMPERS attached pass by. Lucky me was driving, which meant lucky Otto saw his life race before his eyes as he sat on the passenger side, and thus closer to the cliff face.

Once the road widened again and we parked the car, we trekked down to the pools. There were several small pools, which appeared to be formed by people with some of the large rocks from the river. The first was pool was the HOT HOT spring - I think I heard someone say it came out of the rock at about 114 degrees F. The next pools going closer to the river were comfortably warm. The pool closest to the river was a bit chilly, and the river was COLD. So you had a full gamut of water temperatures to jump into and out of. There was also a lovely eau de sulfur wafting about.

After the springs, we drove a little farther down the road to Whiteswan Lake, which Otto took a dip in for about ten minutes. It was a little too choppy and cold for my taste; I think Sam got in with him for a while.

On the way to Lussier Springs, we snapped this shot of Columbia Lake. This lake is the origin of the Columbia River, which eventually empties into the Pacific Ocean in Astoria, Oregon.

That evening, we had an easy dinner of frozen pizza and apples on the porch, ending our last day (unfortunately) of warmer weather.

The next day we walked around Invermere. There was a nice sandy beach area here on Lake Windermere, but it was cooler that day, so no swimming. The boys had to settle for rock skipping. Here they are looking for the perfect, flattish rock.

What trip to the beach is complete without a little hole-digging?

Sam pretending he just caught a big fish!

And another picture courtesy of Andy.


One more BC post to come.