Just around the river bend, I look once more!

Just around the river bend, beyond the shore!

Apparently Rafting along the Kicking Horse River is one of the main things you need to to while you're here in Alberta. Luckily, since I'm a groupon-addict, I found one!

So we decide to make a weekend adventure of it. Saturday we were going to go to Radium Hotsprings, BC and then the following afternoon we would go up to the rafting site.

Saturday we started to drive out to BC. We were taking 2 cars, and one of the drivers decided to take a pit stop in Banff. Not knowing that there was a car expo there (aka making it PACKED with people), we got delayed majorly and lost our other car/friends. See the thing is... when you're in the mountains, cellphone reception is unreliable. So luckily we got a hold of them before they went into the no reception zone, but we got the meeting location mixed up, so we missed a few hiking sites I really wanted to see :(.


We drove through the Kootenay National Park. Once we got to the BC border, we entered Vermilion Pass. All the trees were burnt!

Apparently there was a forest fire that destroyed the area in 2003. 13% off the forest was burned. There was an interpretive trail, but... we never got to that...

We stopped off at the ochre ponds/paint pots. The trail was really mosshy and wet. The soil was really orange too from all the iron/copper in the ground.



We didn't have time to do any other hikes as the rain was starting, so we just drove to Radium. We got a small little 3 bedroom cottage with a pull out couch for 5 of us. One decided to leave to go sleep at a friends place so everything worked out really well. We also got our own private BBQ so that how we cooked dinner! Since it was still relatively early before dinner, we decided to drive around and see the area. We found one little trail that lead the a mini falls and canyon. I think it was Juniper Trail.




Sinclair Canyon, I think was the name of the canyon that we drove through/pass.




Then it started to rain, so we went back and started our BBQ. Smokies, burgers, roasted corn, salad, fruit, etc. Om nom nom!

The next morning for breakfast we had breakfast sausages, bacon, hashbrowns, english muffin, and more fruit. Once we were energized we headed to the rafting area. We were going to be about an hour early so we found a quick hiking trail to Wapta Falls, which is apparently North America's 3rd widest falls. It's originally a 1.5 hour hike, but we booked it and made it back in less than an hour.



At the rafting site, it was awesome. The river level was optimal and fantastic! Here are a few shots.








At the end of the day, we decided to stop off at Field, BC to try for the restaurant "Truffle Pigs" again. Luckily, we weren't blocked by a train again lol.

Before we headed home, I really wanted to see what the natural bridge looked like without all the snow.


Emerald Lake was pretty close so we drove there too.



It was so nice and relaxing.


Final Thought: I gotta admit, I am going to miss the natural beauties.