After spending two nights in Cranbrook, near the foothills of some of the southern Canadian Rockies, I started heading north instead of east. My destination for the next 6 nights would be the town of Golden, British Columbia. From there I would visit 6 National Parks. Curiously, both Cranbrook and Golden, while located in British Columbia, are in the Mountain Time Zone, which encompasses all of Alberta province – maybe not all that unusual, but I thought that the border between the two provinces was the dividing line. This is how we learn…
The mountains which I was able to get a clear look at the afternoon I arrived in Cranbrook were now partially hidden under a low layer of clouds. Some of the higher peaks have snow on them, not always visible from the foothills, and the moisture from that alone often results in clouds forming immediately over the mountain on an otherwise clear day. As I often do, I started my day soon after first light and many of the low clouds would “burn off” once the sunlight starts to penetrate them.
They do make for some interesting photos, though:
As I drove further north I saw a hawk perched on the edge of a nest atop a telephone pole next to the road (note the beautiful blue sky when looking away from the mountains!):
It didn’t take her long to spot me (although I was far away, using my zoom lens on the digital camera). It also became apparent that there were some newborn chicks in the nest beneath her. Between photos I would sometimes see a tiny head or beak pop up, and she sometimes tamped it down with her “foot”.
I had shifted position to be even further away and up the road a ways. She still knew where I was and wasn’t happy, and put out a call for backup.
Sure enough, here came the reinforcements.
After Dad arrived Mom (barely visible on the right in the photo above) took flight towards me and made a low pass, maybe 15 feet off the ground – just enough to get my attention, and circled back to the nest. I took the hint and went on my way.
I had a very pleasant drive north, about an hour and a half, to the little town of Radium Hot Springs. I went to the Visitor Center there, which is also the southern entrance to Kootenay National Park.
Kootenay (pronounced just the way it looks, with the emphasis on the first four letters) would be the first National Park I would visit on this trip. I was prepared to buy a Senior Annual Pass, as I did in 2019 when I visited the Maritime Provinces in eastern Canada, but was delighted to learn that in 2025 admission to Canada’s National Parks is free until after Labour Day (the day I am posting this).
“Radium,” as the locals call it, is also well known for their Bighorn Sheep.
And there is also a set of “much larger than life” ram horns in the traffic circle just up the road towards the entrance to the Park.
If you go back a few posts to “Breaking News!” (posted August 11) you will see that Radium was, in fact, my first up close encounter with four young Bighorn Sheep as they meandered up the highway, completely oblivious to traffic.
After getting my maps and learning the layout of the Park I set off to drive through my first Canadian National Park of 2025.
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