We planned to spend our last full day in Golden visiting Glacier National Park, but our plans took a bit of a turn once we stopped at an information exit and were told that almost all of Glacier was still impassible due to avalanche risks. I love a good adventure as much as the next girl but freezing to death in a snow drift is not how I want to go. We decided that we’d see what we could from the road and instead make our way to Revelstoke.

Revelstoke was a darling little ski town surrounded by beautiful mountains.

We enjoyed wandering in and out of shops and picking up a few souvenirs.

We left Revelstoke and headed back to Golden to grab an early dinner and check out some of the sights we hadn’t yet gotten to at our home base.

Golden’s most famous attraction is the Kicking Horse Pedestrian Bridge, the longest, freestanding timber frame bridge in Canada.

We grabbed an early dinner at the Turning Point (I couldn’t resist a final poutine, this time topped with pulled pork) and headed back home to pack and plan our final day and trip back to Alberta.

We packed up and headed out of town early the next morning with a full day planned. Our first stop was the Kicking Horse Ski Resort for a gondola ride.

Unfortunately, it was snowing hard which meant the view from the gondolas was totally obscured 😦 So we settled for coffee instead. Our next stop was the World’s Largest Paddle!

Can’t resist a weird roadside attraction! Or a cute mountain goat..

Our next stop was Lussier Hot Springs. We hadn’t been overly impressed with Radium Hot Springs which was basically a giant swimming pool, but the guide we’d met in Glacier had assured us that Lussier was much more authentic and convinced us to stop by.

Luckily, they did not dissapoint! The Hot Springs were actually in the middle of the woods, and actually hot! Really hot!

They consisted of a series of about 5 pools, he uppermost being the warmest and each one getting successively cooler as they flowed down into the Lussier River. If you’re looking for a good hot springs experience, skip Radium and go straight to Lussier!

After Lussier we made a quick stop at the White Swan Lake Provincial Park.

Quick because there was a “bear in area” sign and some unsettling tracks..

 

Our final stop was a quick hike to the lovely Simpson River in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park.

We drove into Banff Town that evening and had a delicious dinner at The Bison.

The next morning we caught an early flight back to the states. So long Canada! Can’t wait to return someday!