Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Hotsprings I visited in Canada

All together during my trip in Canada I visited  five hotsprings, in the order in which I visited them they are:

Liard hotsprings on the Alaska  Highway in northern British Columbia right by the Yukon border.
Nakusp hotspring in southern British Columbia on the east shore of Arrow Lake, an hour south of Golden for people who know the area
Radium hotsprings in Kootenay National Park only 250 kilometer from Calgary
The least known of them all Lussier hotspring in Whiteswan Provincial Park 80 some kilometers south of Radium hotsprings and 18 kilometres off the highway (but still drivable).
Banff Upper Hotsprings, obliviously in Banff, so very close to Calgary (about an hour and a half drive from Calgary) I felt I had to stop there on my way back from Radium and Lussier last week.

My absolute favourites are Liard Hotsprings. They have little development (a board walk, a change room a wooden deck with steps) but the surroundings are totally natural, and they are VERY hot close to the source. The pool is so big that this allows to choose the temperature you like by choosing how close you want to be to the source.





 Lussier Hotsprings, they also have little development: a dirt road to get there, a path to walk to them and just some pool built with local rocks (no cement) the proximity of the very cod river makes them extra special for me because I like a cold plunge after/during soaking in hotsprings. they are unfortunately reputed to be very busy in summer but in the fall (I am just back from a short trip to Whiteswan Provincial Park) they were never busy, BUT I was never there alone either..... even on week days.






Nakusp Hotsprings, they are fully developed, so they are chlorinated, but they have a VERY hot pool as well as a normally hot pool and they have a reasonably priced campsite right by the hotsprings. The surroundings are pleasant and there are a few good hikes starting right from the hotsprings.


Radium Hotsprings, are basically hot pools, one of them they call "cold pool" and is design to swim lanes. Obviously they are chlorinated and since they are right by the road they can be too busy.



My least favourite of them all were Banff Hotsprings. They are alright but they are so developed that really they just feel like a hot pool. I don't even have photos of them.

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