Monday 30 August 2010

Hiking and hot springs in the Rockies – what a combination! Driving into the Jasper National Park this morning and getting closer to the Rockies snow dusted peaks was exhilarating. Unfortunately low cloud only allowed us glimpses at this beautiful scenery, but we still managed some stunning photos.


Arriving at the Miette Hot Springs at lunchtime, we hiked some of the way up Sulphur Ridge covering about 6km and 500m in height elevation. Boy the altitude is evident with lots of huffing and puffing involved with the climb. Eventually we got high enough to get a wonderful clear vista of the surrounding mountains and the car park we had left below was but a tiny speck. As we headed back, it was starting to rain – ice rain – tiny hail stones like little homeopathic white pills falling from the sky. We enjoyed the downhill walk through the alpine forests in the 7 degree C air, before arriving back and heading straight for the hot springs where we wallowed in the 40 degree C water until the stiff muscles were relaxed again.

We drove home satisfied with a great day that had far outweighed our expectations.