Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, Canada June 19- July 2, 2011

We moved to another resort about 15 miles south in Fairmont Hot Springs.





This resort had lots of activities and we did some of them. We went to an Epicure presentation (seasonings) and then a chocolate tasting which lasted for 2 ½ hours. We learned all about the beginning of chocolate and how it is processed. Milk chocolate is only 30% chocolate, the rest is sugar. Dark chocolate is 40% or more chocolate. White chocolate is made from the cocoa butter. I went to a pupusas class and actually made pupusas to bring back for us to eat. The class was taught by a lady from El Salvador. They were fun to make and tasted delicious.
We played lots of games,


read, watched movies and worked on a puzzle. These 2 weeks it rained more than half the time so we were indoors quite a lot. We also had a hail storm.



The unit we stayed in was not very good. The refrigerator and the dishwasher quit working as well as the toaster. They brought us another frig and after two calls and two different repairman the dishwasher got fixed. One day we drove to Cranbrook. On the way back we stopped at the headwaters of the Columbia River. I never thought I would see the beginning of this river. It starts from a lake in Canal Flats and flows north for over 200 miles before it turns south and eventually flows into the United States.





What was really great about the 4th week is we got to spend time with our friends Ryan & Michelle and their 3 kids- Carson, Jordan and Weston. Her folks have a cabin just up the road from where we were staying and Michelle and the 3 kids arrived there on Sunday, June 26. We visited with them at the cabin every afternoon. We played games, went to the beach, read books and talked.

















On Wednesday Michelle picked up Ryan in Cranbrook and they left the kids with Ryan’s folks. That gave us Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday to visit with them. Ryan took us to the top of the HooDoos









and we drove to the ski area at Fairmont Hot Springs to eat our picnic lunch.

On Friday the 4 of us went for a hike on the Pedley Pass trail. The drive up to the trail head was a challenge. It was one car wide, extremely rough and rocky with a stream along one side of it. Sometimes it was muddy and soft and we almost got stuck. I was sure glad Ryan was driving as our van would never have made it and there was no place to turn around. We hiked a bit and then ran into snow and we couldn’t tell where the trail went so we turned around.













We visited all evening and Bob & I stayed at the cabin for the night.
We ended our stay here on Saturday. Ryan’s family came up with the kids for lunch. We were entertained by Carson and Jordy with music on glasses.


Carson didn’t want us to leave and took Bob’s keys and hid them. What fun. We sure had a great time and look forward to doing it again sometime.
What an awesome sunset from the cabin.

Radium Hot Springs, BC, Canada – June 4-18

Well I am playing catch-up again. I don’t know what happens in the middle of the year that I just stop posting. I will continue with our trip and post in chronological order.
We were greeted by these big-horned sheep right outside the gate.



We stayed in Radium Hot Springs. The resort we stayed at consisted of only 11 units for timeshare but they were individual houses. We had a three bedroom house.



There were also many hook-ups for campers. We thought this set-up was neat and the colors matched perfectly.


It was a great 2 weeks. The weather was cool and comfortable but it rained quite a few days. It was light from about 5:00 a.m. until after 10:30 p.m. The Canadian Rockies were beautiful with snow on the peaks.



We went hiking near the resort and yes it was way down!


and also down a couple of trails in the national parks. One day we drove a loop through the parks crossing from British Columbia into Alberta through Vermillion Pass which is the Continental Divide

and then drove on to Lake Louise. We stopped and saw Numa Falls where the water has shaped the rocks.




and then later hiked up a path to the Paint Pots. The ochre color was very interesting and the 3 spring ponds at the end were intriguing.









We were in Kootenay National Park, then Banff National Park and then Yoho National Park. One of the most interesting stops was the spiral train tunnel. We even got to see a train go through it. What an unbelievable feat and awesome engineering.



We stopped at Natural Bridge and saw what was waterfalls and now is not.



We saw many, many wild animals, even a moose and a skunk but didn’t get pictures of either one of them.
This moose was stationary so it was easy to get a picture up close.



We saw a coyote, elk, white tail deer, mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goats.