When we arrived the night before, it was primarily overcast, but some sun poked out before the end of the day and I could capture the photo of the mountains near our hotel. Again, I don’t think the photos will reveal the true size and scope of these natural giants, but they are truly magnificent. The hotel is a great find as it has attached an aquatic park complete with hot tub and two water slides that Julia, Michael, and even Laura felt comfortable swirling around. Mom and dad had their share of fun as well. This day we set out for a couple of local spots and a quick 10 minute drive took us to first hot springs discovered in the area in the late 1800s. Julia and Michael quickly gave us their first impressions of the sulphur hot springs: “they stink!” Kyle and I were even overwhelmed by the distinctive stink bomb odor, but they were reported at the time to have great therapeutic effect. The main pool even had water slides at one point, but the pool is no longer in use as a small snail that lives in the water is close to extinction due to human overuse. We even saw the original cave where the water source flows from and it was a very neat walk into a warm underground pool of water. Instead of heading off to the next destination we toured the lower marsh and saw several fish that live in the lukewarm waters near the bottom of the valley. We were hoping to see some other large wildlife, but somehow they have managed to elude us.
The rest of our day was filled with a local museum visit and a chance to learn about the history of the region and have some fun. Our kids quickly got on board and busily checked out the interactive displays. Afterwards, we took it easy for the afternoon and visited the pool area with a good couple of hours of splashing around. We finished the day with a good dinner in town.
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