OK.  I know this is a sewing blog, but I just have to share with you some of the stunning views that surrounded me on my recent vacation to the Rocky Mountains in BC and Alberta. 

This is a ski trail at Lake Louise, a ski resort with 7,000 square miles of ski terrain.  It’s the largest ski area in the Canadian Rockies, and boy, is it worth skiing for a week.

This little signpost is at the top of a lift called The Top of the World.  It’s not actually at the summit at Lake Louise, but it’s close.  I had to take a picture of the km to Toronto!  I’m sorry I couldn’t do a panorama shot of the view.  It would take your breath away.  I think I spent more time drinking in the gorgeous views than actually skiing to the base!

There was 65cm of fresh snow the week we skied.  That makes for a lot of great skiing and totally wonderland surroundings. 

And in a totally different temperature, let me tell you about Lussier Hot springs in Whiteswan Provincial Park, BC.

We skied at Panorama Ski resort the first day, and the staff told us about a natural set of hot springs – undeveloped and off-road.  The sign to the turnoff was tarped over because BC Parks didn’t want to maintain the road during the winter.  It’s actually nothing more than a logging road winding away up through the mountains.

My brother has a 4×4 truck, and we followed him in with our rented Dodge Caravan!!!!  There was a lot of snow, but we did alright, since the road is travelled occasionally by logging rigs.

After about 15 minutes of driving, we pulled into a parking lot and walked down to the Lussier River below us.

The walk to the springs is about 5 minutes from the road.  There’s only a small bathroom at the road turnoff – nothing at the springs!  This is an au naturel experience!

This is the top pool.  The water comes out of the rocks on the right at about 100^oC.  It was –25^oC outside.  This is the view from above the top pool. You can see the river in the background.

The kids are in the second pool, in the middle of the photo below.  We had to keep our hats on because the wind was really bitter!  To the left of where they are sitting is the edge of the third pool.  I think only the kids tried the last pool – it too cold for us adults!

We wore our suits under our ski clothes and brought lots of towels.  When it was time to leave, we all shivered back into our snow pants and trundled off back up the (steep) path to the road again.

You can see the Lussier river through the trees on the path up to the logging road.

It was a fun adventure for the kids.  It’s amazing how hot the pools are, and how weird it is to be cooking from the waist down, and freezing from the waist up!