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Golden,
BC is ideally located as a tourist Mecca, and
now has a direct air service that brings the area
much closer to tourists, business types and
adventurers (more to come). Some day soon, I plan
to make Golden my vacation focus for several weeks;
it leads to an enormous vacation land. Banff and
Calgary are a few hours to the east. The Rogers
Pass and Revelstoke lie to the West; then there's
the Lake and Hot springs Resorts of Radium and
Fairmont to the south. Northward is the long and
winding Big Bend Highway, which served those hardy
types who insisted an all Canadian route to
Vancouver (before the Rogers Pass connection made
it obsolete). We always dipped south and took the
Spokane route when heading west from Calgary. Now
the trip is a breeze via Rogers Pass.
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Golden is A main stop of the newly launched
historic excursion train, Royal Canadian Pacific.
for information contact Brewster at
1-800
661 1152.
Soothe
those Aching Muscles
Fairmont Hot Springs has four pools with an average
temperature of 40 degrees Celsius and Radium Hot
Springs has two pools, averaging 35 degrees.
Hottest of all is Lussier Hot Springs near Canal
Flats, whose waters hit a healthy 44 degrees.
Four mineral pools
tumble down the hillside into the Lussier river at
Whiteswan Hot Springs, near a lake of the same
name. Many First Nations people made pilgrimages to
these sacred waters via the Spirit Trail. At Canal
Flats, your map shows two mighty rivers flowing
side-by-side. Great lovers in Indian folklore, the
Columbia and Kootenay Rivers were pledged to remain
apart until completing their separate journeys.
The
Spirit Trail
To the K'tunaxa
peoples, Columbia Lake's shores were a Garden of
Eden, where the Creator placed his first people.
Today, it's the site of Fairmont Hot Springs, which
boasts Canada's largest natural hot pools, a lodge,
and two golf courses. The original native bath
house is open to visitors at no charge. Beyond
Invermere and Lake Windermere, the road forks;
route 95 heading north via The Bugaboos (of
Heli-skiing fame) to Golden and Yoho National Park;
route 93 becomes Banff-Windermere
Parkway
Kootemik-Radium
Hot Springs
Imagine if you can
-- two million litres of hot, mineral-rich water
gushing from the ground each day. That's a lot of
Perrier! With healing powers reputed to relieve
arthritis and a list of ailments as long as one's
arm, a wily Medicine Man could have made a fortune
selling it by the bottle. Known as Kootemik to
local Indians, whose legend of Nipika traces their
origin, the springs were popularized in the 1890s.
At Radium's Aquacourt, you can soak year-round in
the steamy, odorless mineral water, or swim in two
outdoor pools. The Lodge has an 18-hole golf
course, campgrounds and shuttle-bus.
Of Marble
and Paint Pots
According to
experts, Kootenay National Park is an
ancient ocean floor. Over 70 million years ago, so
they say, it was compressed, folded like a gigantic
pretzel, and sculpted into what we call the Rocky
Mountains. In 1920, Ottawa bigwigs dedicated the
park in a move to preserve the canyon's mineral
springs, and protect waterfalls along the highway.
Landmarks on the Banff-Windermere Parkway include
Sinclair and Marble Canyons, Vermilion Pass and the
Fireweed Trail. Heard about The Paint Pots? Would
you believe they're ponds of red, yellow and
orange, just like a kiddies' coloring set? The pots
are fed by oxide-bearing streams, and there's an
endless supply. For ages untold, Indians mixed
ochre from this site with fish oil or animal fat to
decorate rocks, teepees -- and each other. Near
Vermilion Pass, the Alberta- BC. boundary marks the
summit of the Continental Divide; rivers east of
here drain to the Arctic Ocean or to far off
Hudson's Bay; waters to the west flow to the
Pacific.
Banff
to Jasper on the Icefields Parkway
Banff
Park's Castles and Caves
Imagine spending
twelve festive days of Christmas in a fairyland
castle! Truly unforgettable, when it's the Banff
Springs Hotel. During many memorable stays, l
learned of the hotel's hey day from band leader
Louis Trono, who was on a first name basis with the
Hollywood greats. As a return to elegance, the
hotel offers a new $12 million health spa, with
cascading waterfalls, mineral whirlpools and
Turkish baths. The Banff Springs is an Epicurean's
delight and a golfer's challenge. The first
tee-off, from high above the Bow River to its far
shore, still gives me goose pimples.
Upper Hot
Springs
After skiing Mount
Norquay, hiking Sundance Canyon, or fishing Lake
Minnewanka, Sulphur Mountain's Upper Hot Springs is
a Banff ritual -- hot plunge, icy shower, steam
bath, blanket-wrap and massage. Loose as a noodle
and ready to devour an ox -- is how one usually
feels after that routine. A gondola nearby will
whisk you to the summit for a sweeping view of the
valley. Sundance Canyon Trail leads to The Cave and
Basin National Historic Site, where like
honeymooners for generations past, we gazed through
a telescope at surrounding peaks. Clad in
Rundle-stone, like most Banff buildings, this site
contains displays, a theater, and tours into the
misty grotto, with its emerald pools, and warm
sulfur water dripping down the cavern walls.
Priceless Indian relics at nearby Luxton Museum are
well worth seeing.
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The
eternal icefields wear a "necklace of thermal
springs", fed from water trapped in fissures and
caverns deep in the roots of the Rockies. Raging
rivers, glutted by the seasonal runoff, churn and
boil like some concoction from a giant soda
fountain. Oh the joys of steamy, bubbly-hot,
sulfur-scented waters; Solus Par Aqua (health by
water) to the Romans; a sacred rite to Canada's
native peoples, and Shangri-La to we hot springs
fanatics.