Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Silvery Slocan Circle Tour

In the tourist book for Nelson, it mentioned the Silvery Slocan Circle Tour (say that quickly), about 3 hours of driving time and a day trip you won't want to miss. When we had dinner with Sharon, she told us about the hot springs at Ainsworth partway around the tour. So off we went...

It's reassuring to see the netting on the sides of some of the mountains...

We got to Ainsworth and decided to have lunch before the hot springs. A beautiful setting...


Oh...it was so nice!!!

The pool was 97 degrees; the caves 105; and the cold plunge, should you decide to take it, was 44 degrees.

The pool is open year-round. It would be so nice to be sitting in there with the snow falling!

Jim going into the cave...

There is so much steam in the cave that I lost him. You can barely make out his outline!

I wanted to just stay there. It was so relaxing...

You walk into one side of the caves and, once your eyes adjust, you can sit on benches that they have made in the water in the cave, and then walk out the other side. I thought when we got out of the caves and pool, that I would be so cold. But your body is so warm that you don't even notice the temperature outside the pool. I loved it!

We continued on with our circle tour, heading towards Kaslo...

Downtown Kaslo...

Kaslo has been named "British Columbia's Prettiest Town." Not sure about that, but it was quaint.

Fish Lake at the top of the pass..

Heading to Sandon, once the richest silver mining region in Canada. It's now a "ghost town"...

At the height of the mining boom in 1892, it was a city of 5,000 people. It had two railroads, 29 hotels, 28 saloons, an opera house, two newspapers, five men's clothing stores, a bank, gambling halls, brothels, offices, stores and businesses. Hard to imagine!

Klondike Silver Corp....it almost looked like it was still in operation...not sure on that one...

Information office called "Prospector's Pick"...

This is the 1890s era fire hall with its unique collection of antique stove parts...

A few houses...

Some of the original mining and milling components...

The fire hall today...

Early 1900s steam powered freight train...

It's hard to believe this was actually a street corner at one time. It's really hard to imagine 5,000 people living here...

We left Sandon and headed to New Denver. They have built a memorial centre here to honour the Canadian citizens of Japanese descent who were uprooted and forcibly interned in the valley during WWII. Although more than 60 years have passed, there are still a few citizens living in New Denver from those originally resettled here in 1942.

A garden was designed by Roy Sumi of Vancouver at the age of 87.

Another super day....

The three hour tour (sounds like Gilligan's Island) actually took us 6-1/2 hours. It is dark here at 4:30 in the afternoon so by the time got back, it was night!

The weather tomorrow is sounding a bit iffy...snow and/or rain. So we'll see in the morning where we go. We are hoping to head to Kelowna.

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