Day 58: Rockies – Grand Finale

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Today was the Canadian Rockies and practically the “north of the USA tour” grand-finale: this day had a big responsibility to summarize all that we have seen. The day did not disappoint!
The weather was welcoming, the air was crisp, the visibility was fantastic, and there was some thin layer of fresh snow from the storm last night at the top of the mountains. Next, we headed to Kootenay National Park – to hike to the Stanely Glacier. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived – the small parking lot was too full to fit our RV – so we left it 1 hour behind (and 5 min drive) on the other side of the “continental divide” that separates Alberta (mountain time zone) and British Columbia (Pacific time zone).
The trail itself had all we could dream of, a challenging hike up (~2000 feet), going through a forest, amazing wildflowers (including the unforgettable purple fire-weed to get a farewell kiss from us -see pictures), Great Gulch canyon with tall walls, super-tall waterfalls, scree slopes, a glacier, a stream and so much more. It was a great hike.

Upon finishing the 12Km of hiking – we continued to travel the beautiful park and were sorry we had so little time to continue exploring it. Yet – when we got to Radium Hot Springs – we could not hold ourselves, and we jumped into the warm water (for the ridiculously low price of 8 CAD)
We stayed there so long, even though we did not have a reserved place to camp that night – a clear recipe for having dinner after 10:00 PM at the last campsite in Canada.