Whiteswan hotsprings

Yesterday was a sad day for us as we said our farewells to Sarah and Tony - they have embarked on the first leg of their epic roadtrip to Alaska, but will be coming back to Fernie in a week's time (by which point, we'll be in Vancouver). They are on the way to Banff and Sunshine Village for a bit of late season skiing, but decided to stop off at Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park on the way. We've heard great things about the place so we decided to go too.

The park is about a two hours from Fernie, and when we got past Cranbrook it was nice to actually drive on a road that neither us had been on before. Jethro has obviously been on his big roadtrip, but I've never been further than Cranbrook so it was doubly exciting for me! We drove past towns with an assortment of funny names; Ta Ta Creek, Skookumchuck, Wasa Lake and Canal Flats to name but a few.

Whiteswan Park is known for the Lussier river thermal hotsprings but it's a relatively small park in comparison to some of Canada's biggies, like Jasper. A dirt logging road goes right through it so we turned off at the sign and suddenly found ourselves heading towards the middle of nowhere. We saw an abundance of deer and small gophers within five minutes of getting off the highway.

After ten minutes on this dusty track, having passed no cars, we really were back to nature, surrounded by vast forests and huge mountain ranges. Rock faces seemed to crop up out of nowhere and when we turned a corner, the road suddenly dropped away to the right down into a huge gorge with the Lussier river running through it. This freaked me out a bit, but Jethro insisted on getting out of the van to take pictures and stand right on the edge... my knees went all wobbly when I tried to do the same.

Thinking we really should come across the hotsprings soon, it was another fifteen or so minutes before we saw a small carpark, toilets (in the form of sheds with holes cut into the bottom - and you thought Glastonbury toilets smelled bad!) and the pathway leading down to the river and the hotsprings.

There were only two other cars in the carpark, so when we made our way to the bottom of the ravine, there was an older Canadian couple and two Japanese tourists relaxing in the larger of the thermal springs. Sarah had warned us that the smell of sulphur is pretty bad but we didn't really notice it too much. The water was very clear and when we dipped a toe in, it was warm, but not hot. The larger pool was definitely warmer but we decided to have a spring to ourselves and went and sat in the one nearest the river. Because of the snow melting, the river has risen a lot over the past two weeks and so the pools have been affected by this. The Canadian lady was telling us that they were usually much hotter. Jethro almost braved a dip in the river, but came to his senses.

We weren't exactly cold, but we could have been warmer as we sat there, looking as pale and interesting as best we could, trying to keep the British end up. I don't know how, but Canadians manage to keep up a year round tan...

A few hours later, by the time we were getting ready to leave, there were a lot more people arriving so we timed it pretty well. But by then, the sun had properly come out and it was much warmer. We didn't realise it at the time, but when we got home that evening we had managed to get sunburnt pretty well! We've been so lucky with the weather lately - it was 25 degrees yesterday. Nights are still very cold, so it doesn't really warm up until about four in the afternoon.

We had a quick explore around more of the park - there are some great campsites there, including one by Alex Lake (which we'd love to come back to at some point). It's hard to explain so I'll hope the photos will help, but every time we turned a corner it was picture postcard take-your-breath-away beautiful.

To end the day, we found Tony and Sarah a pretty lakeside rest area for them to camp the night before going to get a few supplies. They very kindly cooked for us on their new portable stove and it was a lovely meal (I think they were pleased to see that everything - apart from their fridge - was working properly.) Jethro and Tony did their best to sneak up on some more gophers to get some decent photographs. Jethro got a few, but I think the gophers had the last laugh... watching two grown men crawl around on their bellies, enticing them with crisps.

The steep, deep and frankly hairy logging road that runs through Whiteswan


That's close enough thanks, Mr Photographer!


The Lussier River - the hotsprings are just out of shot to the left


Sarah and Tony take a dip


You see what I mean about picture perfect views?


The sun had this really wierd halo effect around it all day, so Jethro wondered if he could get a picture of it, et voila!


Jethro and Sarah


A cheeky mountain sheep that decided to jump in front of Tony and Sarah's van - but didn't get squished, thankfully.


We stopped off at Fort Steele for some provisions (ie: crisps and pop) and couldn't resist this enticing tourist trap!


Setting up for dinner by the lake - how many restaurants have this good a view? It was perfect - apart from the midgies!


Just to prove that Jethro's efforts with the gophers were not fruitless. I give you Gordon the gopher's second cousin, once removed...


...and his Auntie Shiela:


And if that wasn't enough wildlife for one day, this rather cute little bambi posed for us for a good five minutes by the side of the road on the way home. We think she was a professional...


And finally, one more beautiful scenic shot of the sun going down. We know, it's boring by now!