Ran away to the mountains for the weekends....
Trip Start
Mar 31, 2011
1
Trip End
Apr 03, 2011
Invermere, British Columbia, Canada
Friday, April 1, 2011
Later we found a book with all the other visitors comments and they talked about this natural hotsprings, YAY, fun. So, off to the library we go to find a map of how to get there and off we go, straight past Fairmont, past Canal Flats a little ways to Whiteswan Provincial Park, take the logging road and just past mile marker 17 you'll come to a pullout with some outhouses and there you are! There's a bit of a hike down into the springs, and yes, it stinks but you'll love it, I promise. There's also no place to change at the bottom unless you hunker down behind some rocks, even then you gotta look out for folks looking down from the road! So, prepare ahead. Also it's all rock so if you are delicate, bring flip flops. The first pool is hot,then as you move closer to the river it gets cooler. Be brave, take a dip in the creek!
On the way back to town, there's a bridge just as you start climing the hill out of Canal Flats, apparently there's a nice 10 minute hike to some waterfalls. I haven't been there but the locals say it's pretty nice.
Bavin's Glass shop is located at the top of the hill just before you go down into the town of Invermere, or they have another location on the hill at Panorama. The shop in town has glass blowing demonstrations on Thursdays from May until October (ish). They also teach all kinds of glass working classes - beading, fusing, how to make jewellry... To go with the classes they have all kinds of findings and clasps if you're making jewelry.
Across the street in those wonderful shop looking buildings are the Kicking Horse Coffee shop and the local quilt shop which I also recommend if you like coffee/tea or fabrics!
Also in that same area is the golf course. It was really beautiful, they take your clubs, give you a bottle of water, snacks, set up your clubs for you, GPS. Awesome. Great course with great views.
Panorama ski hill is through the town of Invermere up the hill and worth the drive even just to see. I'm not a great skier, haven't been on skis for 10 yrs so there was a great trail that goes back and forth across the hill, not terribly steep - it's a great run to get you back into the swing of things, it was nice and long (no chairlift rides during the blizzard), views were awesome and there wasn't many people on it. Lift lines moved quite quickly. We did another couple runs, my friends went to the other side of the hill, loved it. It seems to close the second week of April. A lift pass and ski/helmet rentals cost me around $120. The hill opens at 9am, closes at 4pm.
Lots of wildlife in the area. Herds of goats and deer all over the place both times I was in the area and apparently eagle's will stop there on their migration in the month of April.
