Day 5 (26 October)
Today was supposed to be the day that we drove to Jasper, but after driving five hours round trip yesterday, we weren’t too eager to drive four hours each way to visit a national park that may or may not look very similar to Banff. We may still choose to drive up and check it out, but today was not the day.
We instead decided to check out the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. I knew absolutely nothing about this place other than the fact that it was going to be our meet up site when we went on our stargazing walk the other night, so it was pretty wild walking up to it today and wondering if I was the only one starting to smell something sulfuric.
We walked up to the visitor center and purchased our tickets to the museum to learn more about the significance. It was after I started reading that I found out that these were hot springs, and that’s why there was such a strong odor. We walked through the museum and read all about how these springs were discovered and then actually got to walk into a cave where one of the springs exists. I don’t know how many hot springs y’all have been to, but when I say this cave smelled like hydrogen sulfide, I mean it SMELLED. It hit us in the face and then kept going. I think one of my first clues was the fact that as we walked up, several groups of children came running out, holding their noses and going on about how much it smelled.
Once we spent some time in the cave we started getting used to it, but I’m not sure how the early settlers who discovered this decided that this was something they really wanted to spend time bathing in. Yes, I understand that hot water was quite the commodity, but I’d imagine that smelling like eggs would be a pretty strong detractor.
We exited the cave after snapping some photos and made our way outside. We learned that in the early to mid 1900s, park staff created a swimming pool by diverting the runoff from these hot springs and opened it to the public. It was only after years of doing this and someone testing the water that they realized they probably shouldn’t be putting humans in water that’s home to a delicate ecosystem, reliant on a specific set of conditions that humans tend to disrupt.
We walked some trails around these hot springs and saw more of the history of the area. after a while, though, it was time to give our noses a break and so we headed back to the car.
Our next stop was the gondola. We had so much fun the last time that we decided to head back up Sulfur Mountain. This time, we would be trying to do some astrophotography. We got up the hill via the gondola and walked the board walk to try to work up an appetite. Despite the temperature being a bit warmer than the last time we were up there, the wind was much stronger and it cut deep. My nose and ears were numb in minutes and Bri was feeling the cold, as well, despite all of the layers she had on. We took a couple photos and headed back for dinner.
It wasn’t until we had gotten to our seats inside of Northern Lights that we found out the menu never changes. Oh, well. We had much of the same food we enjoyed the first time (although it had certainly lost some of its charm by this time) and we waited for the sun to set.
After about an hour long dinner, the sun had set and it was time to go out and brave the cold again. We lasted about 15 minutes before Bri let me know it was time to go back inside again. I didn’t bring the right tripod (a 12” tripod is great for some things, but this wasn’t one of them), so I didn’t complain much. It was super pretty, but maybe next time I’ll pack a bigger tripod and a wider lens.
We packed up and headed back to the lift for the ride home.
Now we’re back in the room and looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow. It looks like some light precipitation, so maybe we’ll have some snow photos to share with you all tomorrow. Who knows!
