Northern Rockies: Day 9
Post date: Nov 27, 2013 5:56:53 AM
We enjoyed our last breakfast at the hotel and took our time before checking out a little before 9a. We headed back into Banff National Park before turning west onto AB-93. Just before crossing into British Columbia we stopped at the Vista Lake viewpoint. The morning fog had risen half-way up the nearby mountain covering the timberline. Hewitt Peak and other mountains of Kootenay National Park were visible to the west. Shortly, we crossed into BC and Kootenay National Park at Vermilion Pass on the continental divide. At Marble Canyon we stopped for a quick little walk.Here Tokumm Creek has sliced a very narrow box canyon through the limestone and dolomite as it makes its final approach to the Vermilion River. The walk from the base to the waterfall is just over a mile but packs in some great scenery. A wildfire ripped through this area and the surrounding areas in 2003 and destroyed everything around the canyon. It took many years to rebuild all of the bridges and the forest is still recovering. At some points the canyon is so narrow that rocks have fallen and become wedged between the walls. When we were here there were only a few people walking along the trail--much different than Johnston Canyon.
The milky color of the water combined with the surrounding rocks of the canyon and mountains adds up to some gorgeous scenery. Topping it off is a nice two-tiered waterfall that drops into the darkness. A fenced-off viewpoint leads visitors right up to it. The many bridges criss-cross over the canyon, allowing visitors to peer into the canyon and sometimes glimpse the creek below. We thoroughly enjoyed the crowdless scenery here, but we still feel that Johnston Canyon's scenery is better. For one, the Johnston Canyon Trail is longer. There are also more and better waterfalls along the walk and you get to actually be inside the canyon whereas at Marble Canyon you peer down from above. Nevertheless, both canyons are beautiful and we highly recommend checking out Marble Canyon. Back on the road, we followed BC-93 as it curved south and gave a nice view over the Vermilion River of the Vermillion Range to the southwest. Shortly after this we pulled over to check out Numa Falls. This is a small waterfall that takes all of 30 seconds to see from the parking area. Happily, there was no one at this waterfall so we took our time to enjoy it and admire the work of water on the rocks surrounding the river. We continued south on BC-93 and followed it into the Kootenay River Valley. We pulled over on the side of the road a few times along the way to admire the views and savor our fleeting time in the Canadian Rockies.
As BC-93 climbs out of the Kootenay River Valley there is a great pullout on the east side of the highway overlooking the valley. Past this the highway crosses over Sinclair Pass at Olive Lake. This tiny scenic lake has outlets to either direction and has a little viewing platform to spot some brook trout. Two water molecules leaving the lake at opposite ends won't meet up again until the confluence of the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers at Castlegar, BC over 121 miles as the crow flies to the southwest. The Radium Hot Springs pools are passed just before Sinclair Canyon.
This narrow canyon was eroded by its namesake creek but not enough for a two-lane highway. However, dynamite solved this problem and in some places the highway was placed directly above the creek. Small parking lots above and below the canyon allow tourists to get out and check out the canyon. When we stopped at the lower parking area some park rangers were pulling some animals up from the creek immediately below the narrowest part of the canyon. Unfortunately, a couple of young bighorn sheep were frightened by traffic and jumped off of the road to find only air 50 feet above the creek. Two ewes and a juvenile were watching the activities from the cliff above the lower parking lot.We joined BC-95 at Radium Hot Springs and headed south. The road quickly climbed up to multiple lovely viewpoints overlooking the Columbia River. We stopped at the southernmost one just as an older couple was wrapping up a picnic. After this viewpoint we continued south on BC-93/95 for a while before stopping for a view of Columbia Lake--the Columbia River's headwaters. Near the lower (northern) end of the lake is big parking area with an adjacent hill. We followed a little trail up to the top of the lonely hill for uninterrupted views over the entire lake. At the southwestern tip of the lake we turned onto a dirt road and followed it to a great view of the Columbia headwaters. The surrounding mountains were perfectly reflected in the wetland waters. Further south on BC-93 we turned onto Colony Road west of Bull River and found a perfect viewpoint over the Kootenay River. Once again the surrounding mountains were perfectly reflected in the calm waters making for an idyllic scene. B also found some colorful grasshoppers to take a closer look at.
From here we continued south on BC-93 to the border crossing. There was a line at the border but the cars seemed to be moving fairly quickly through the checkpoint. However, when it was our turn to be questioned it took a little longer. Apparently we looked like we were transporting something. He started by asking us where we were going and where we had been. Then he kept quizzing us using our responses to try and trip us up. While peeking into the back of our car the border patrolman asked us what we were taking out of Canada. "Some T-shirts, stickers, and other small souvenirs," we responded.
"Umm...anything else you might be bringing back?"
"Umm...no," we responded while he looked us in the eye. We're not sure what he was implying but he eventually let us go. This was the complete opposite experience we had while crossing into Canada earlier in the week. Apparently there are much more interesting things to bring into the US from Canada than the opposite. Back in Montana, we followed US-93 down into Kalispell and the lake cabin in time for dinner.
That night my mind was back at Columbia Lake and I started thinking about the hydrologic cycle. In all of its complexities it is simply movement governed by buoyancy and gravity and interrupted by periods of storage both physical and biological. At some point precipitation falls as rain or snow on the surrounding slopes and, forced by gravity, makes its way down to the lake where it may stay for years before being flushed out into the river if it isn't evaporated back into the atmosphere. Down, down it flows through valleys, towns, and dams avoiding the pull of evaporation, plants, and humans until finally it reaches the ocean where it may stay for thousands of years. However, whether it makes it to the ocean, is taken up by riparian vegetation, is extracted and applied to an agricultural field, percolates down to groundwater, or evaporates from any of those surfaces, it will eventually end up back in the atmosphere, travel many miles, and be super-cooled below the freezing point until it finds a condensation nucleus to join with other water molecules in an ever growing mass until gravity extracts it from the sky to fall once again to the surface and start the process all over again. Even more interesting is thinking about how near the formation of Earth comets first delivered water to this planet and over millennia brought in enough to cover 2/3 of it. Every water molecule on Earth since then has been continually passing in and out of storage which includes every deep crevasse it could find, every ocean, every lake, every stream, every rock, and every living organism ever to exist. Dinosaurs, mammoths, lions, trees, bacteria. Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Marie Curie. And before all of that the ingredients that make water--hydrogen and oxygen--were exploded from innumerable stars across an unfathomable expanse of space to be pulled together by gravity before these masses began to collide and coalesce into larger masses that could eventually cook up organic compounds and life. When I think about this, I feel an extreme connection with everything that has occurred up to this point to allow my existence. I feel a deep pride and responsibility. At some point the water within me will be free to continue traveling and make it possible for other organisms to live. Even a single droplet can sustain thousands. This simple solvent so critical to our world and yet so often overlooked and under-appreciated. Not a bad thing to spend a career studying.
