Last Day in our Winter Wonderland

This morning we woke up to a -21, not that you feel it inside. We tried out the hot springs in town and we decided we wanted to go out to the ones in the mountains. They are more natural, no power, phone reception. As it's a treacherous drive up there, they recommend the shuttle service. We booked for 10.30am, so a lazy morning until then. They picked us up from our accommodation and just down the road we finally saw a moose on our way. Picked up a few more people and we were on our way. Once again a really pretty drive especially with the sunshine. We put our bathers on underneath our clothes as it's a bit of a walk down to the springs. So you find a bench or chair to put your belongings on and strip. Which is not easy to do as it's too cold to stand on the ground without shoes, so you strip the top half then take shoes off then try and stand on top off them to take your pants off. You can't run to the pools as your feet are either frozen to the path, you slip on the ice or you can't handle the little pebbles that are there to stop you slipping over. The first couple of steps into the pool can be icy so you grab the frozen rail and its so cold and your hand is now stuck to the rail. The steps are quite sharp so your carefully feel your way into beautiful warm water. You look around and everybody's hair has icicles. The hottest pools start up the top of mountain and they gradually decrease in temperature down the mountain. We went in the 2 lowest. Wouldn't have liked any warmer as the second to last one got a bit too warm. Then there was a cold pool. The kids went for a quick dip in the cold for a few seconds. The challenge in the cold pool was to swim to the end hop out and sit in a chair in the snow. Quite a few did this. We tried to go further up the mountain but it was too treacherous and cold on your feet. I thought once we were dressed we would go for a walk and have a look, but the kids said they were skinny dipping. Clothing is optional after dark, I think you can go topless through the day. They weren't where families were but you walked past them. So I didn't get to see the higher pools. We had about 1 1/2 hrs there before the shuttle came back to pick us up. We weren't sure how we were going to get back into our dry clothes. My ski pants had frozen as there is so much moisture in the air. We put our boots on and ski jackets and walked back up to this small changing hut which had 3 curtain off cubicles. And a huge line. We finally got changed and was time to catch our shuttle. It was another highlight glad we decided to go out there. A lot better than the town one. It was so pretty and it literally looked like glitter in the air. We got dropped off at our accommodation and we had some lunch and then went back into downtown to do a bit of last minute souvenir shopping and then to the mountain to ride the outlaw coaster. Wasn't much of wait just as well it was so cold. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the top of the mountain in your coaster. Then off you go down the mountain. You control your speed, I wasn't sure if you could fly off the tracks. It was so cold my eyes were watering then the water nearly freezes. I was glad to see the end. We found a place for a hot chocolate and thawed out before catching the shuttle back. Now the ominous task of packing and fitting everything in our backpacks.Read more