As the weekend approached for our trip to David Thompson Country, we knew from the weather forecasts that we had better pack warm clothes. Snow was on the way, but it was just the type of snow that would melt in a few days.
Thursday morning, our carpool headed for the Goldeye Centre outside Nordegg, with a quick stop along the way at our favourite Dutch grocery store and café, the Wooden Shoe at Gull Lake. As we approached the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, we were treated to stunning views of fields and forests in fall colours.
At Goldeye, we hiked around the lake and up the hill to a vast cleared section. The clouds lifted and we got our first view of the mountains.
Flowers are still blooming here. We saw a lot of yellow asters (Arnica) and even strawberries in bloom.
On Friday morning, the ground was covered in a light dusting of snow. We headed south to the Kootenai Plains and hiked the popular Siffleur Falls trail.
The next day, more snow had fallen. We spent the morning with a hike down to Crescent Falls. The trees were loaded down with the fluffy stuff and we could see the clear, distinctive paw prints of a wild cat—as well as rabbit tracks .
In the afternoon we hiked the trail at Cline River. We started off on the horse trail and then took a side shoot down to the river. The narrow trail runs along the river and rises up as the gorge deepens. We were quite high up, overlooking the rocky canyon, before the trail led us back to the horse trail again. This side trail is not found on most maps, but it is described in the David Thompson Highway Hiking Guide by Jane Ross and Daniel Kyba. Almost in unison, we declared we would come back and visit this again.
On Sunday morning we checked out and drove to Fish Lake, just south of Nordegg, for our last hike of the trip.
The “group photo” below shows how evenings were spent in the lodge—the boys quietly reading books and the girls loudly playing cards!
A big thank you goes to Anita who organized the trip and led the hikes. You can see more photos on Flickr (Wooden Shoe, Thursday at Goldeye, Friday at Siffleur Falls, Saturday at Crescent Falls and Cline River Corridor, Sunday at Fish Lake)
Fantastic photos! Spectacular!
Boys reading and girls drinking???
The world has really changing!!! (laughing)