Sunday, July 31, 2016

Twofer

 

Rain was the name of the game for our last two touring days (Fri & Sat 7/29,30) in Alberta (Canada).  We carried on our touring in spite of recurring showers.   On Fri. friends Dave and Chris came to stay at our rv park for a couple of days, so that it was six of us who went nature walking that evening.  At the eastern edge of Hinton is a fen (spring or stream fed wetlands) with a boardwalk around and through it.  We came to see the beavers.

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We wandered aimlessly  beside and across the water.

Our first sign of beaver activity.

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Lodges.

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Finally, the beaver family, working away on a new dam.

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Other denizens of the pond.

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As we found the beavers, the rain found us.  We made it back to our vehicles before the rain started, drove home through pouring rain.  As we pulled into our rv park, we saw this beautiful perfect double rainbow.  These photos don’t show the sharp, bright colors, but does show that the colors are reversed on the upper one.

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Rain continued throughout the next day, as we explored another side road in Jasper National Park.

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The road to Mirette  (Myret) hot springs would have been fun on the bikes as it wound its way through the mountains.

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The big draw was the hot springs swimming pool and bath house.  As we arrived a shower was starting.  We decided to wait it out in the restaurant/gift shop while we had lunch.

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We weren’t here to swim but to see where the old bath house and swimming pool used to be.

Hot water from the pool running down the hill.  Here it was hot, but cooled quickly the further it went.

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The hot water from the spring joined the Mirette River coming from the opposite direction. This water was icy cold.

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A nice boardwalk made this walk easy.

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Old bath house foundation.  At the lower level were steam rooms and saunas.  The upper wooden level, now gone, held the entrance and changing rooms.  The pool itself was to the left.

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View of the pool today looking toward Brock and Leola on the other side of the trees.

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There are several hot springs along this walk.  This one featured a little gutter for people to feel the water temperature.

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This little spring flowed under the boardwalk.

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At the parking/picnic area we disturbed this Big Horn sheep rummaging among the litter.

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He nonchalantly waited for us to move out of his way,

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and headed for the grass on the other side.

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With rain starting again, we headed ourselves toward home.

Only one more day in Jasper.

Louise and Duane

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