Fall has certainly arrived (in Lake Louise, at least), with frost every night if the sky is clear. I had been keeping a light bulb in the camper at night to keep it from freezing, but had given that up, drained the tanks and put anti-freeze in the water lines. But it is not this cold everywhere, so when the opportunity came to go camping again in a warmer area, it did not take much convincing to reverse the process.

On the first night, I drove highway #23 south of Revelstoke and camped in the provinciaol campsite at Shelter Bay ferry terminal.



View Larger Map












Departing Shelter Bay ferry terminal.







In the morning, I caught the free ferry to continue southward.

We shared space on the boat with at least three loaded logging trucks.








Backup ferry at Shelter Bay.














Load of logs on the ferry.














Big logs!










The backwoods hot spring on the St. Leon road was apparently closed, so it was decided to mortgage the farm and pay for swimming and camping at the commercial Halcyon Hot Springs!









Had a dip both evening and morning, and spent some time walking the grounds and looking at some historic buildings.

Later in the morning, during a quick stop in Nakusp for some coffee and goodies, a local cat decided he would like to join the expedition by jumping on the hood of the truck!

Luckily Harley could not get his paws on the little guy.







Cat prowler in Nakusp.







Both Halcyon and Nakusp are on the east side of the Upper Arrow Lake.

They grow big trees in some parts of B.C., but I did not know that they grew big rhubarb as well. Check out these specimens!



















From Halcyon hot springs, it was then off to Ainsworth Hot Springs. Ainsworth is south of Kaslo on the west shore of Kootenay Lake in the Purcell Mountains. The natural, outdoor springs feature a unique horseshoe shaped cave that takes you into the mountainside, while wading in the hot water with 100% humidity!


View Larger Map








The cave entrance at Ainsworth hot springs.








The remainder of this trip will be detailed in the next post - and it involves yet another hot spring in the east Kootenay's.

Lastly, I have included a short video (as a test) that I made a week or so ago when taking a horse back to the ranch for the winter. I led Foxy a short distance to her winter pasture behind the truck.


Foxy and friends.