The weather for the past week has been typical Fall weather - showery and cool. Just like Canberra's winter. The trees are beginning to change colour and there is now snow at higher elevations. Sadly, no snow yet in the valleys.

Today was a road trip to Radium Hot Springs in the eastern Kootenays in British Columbia. The road passes through Kootenay National Park and the border between the provinces of Alberta and British Colombia. The views along the road are amazing when the cloud and fog finally lifted.

 

 

 The hot springs got their name from the small traces of radon found in the water, which all you budding physicists know is a decay product of radium. We did not partake of the radioactive waters unlike many others. The town is just as famous for its bighorn sheep that gather in November for the rutting season and put on a head banging exhibition for the lady sheep, as well as the tourists.

The Columbia river passes through this region and is a mere trickle compared to its mammoth size when it enters the Pacific Ocean near Oregon. Unlike the Banff and Jasper parks, the Kootenay area is drier and more backwoodsy. A bit like in the movie Deliverance.