LIARD HOT SPRINGS

We had been advised to not miss the hot springs at Liard. The Provincial campground adjoins the springs. There is a charge of $5 a person per day to enter the springs, but if you stay in the campground for $18 (now $19), entrance is included. The campground is really nice with large sites that can hold the big rigs. Of course there are no hook-ups, no dump station, and their well was out, so there wasn’t any water either. They were providing drinking water on an as necessary basis until a new well can be drilled. The boardwalk out to the spring is ¼ mile. Once there, a dressing room is provided. We had worn our bathing suits. There are two pools, Alpha and Beta. Alpha is hotter than Beta, and it is where we preferred. Alpha has a pebble bottom, Beta was just, um, mucky, icky. We were glad we had taken the advice to stop. The first evening on our way to the hot springs we saw a moose, grazing as calm as could be. We, of course, had not brought our cameras and only guessed that this might be a normal thing around there. After that we took cameras with us each time but unfortunately, we never saw a sign of him again. A real high point of the trip to date.

A couple of interesting facts about the pools. They could be called thermal springs, hot springs or mineral springs. Thermal springs are more than 5 degrees celsius; hot springs are more than 32 degrees c and mineral springs have solids in a concentration of more than 1000 pp million. They are fed by thermal springs as well as cold water springs. If they weren’t fed by both you would not be able to get in at all. As you move around the pools you could find hot spots that you didn’t even want to stay in, then as you moved you would find cool spots. If it seemed too hot you could move the water around some and the hot and cold would blend to make it more comfortable.

We stayed two nights, mostly because E was having some muscle problems from all the constant riding. On our second day, coming back from the pool one of the guests told us to sit under the falls between the pools and let the water massage the back. E got up the next morning and went back to try it. I think it helped, as he said, it was like having a massage or like sitting in a hot tub where the jets can really hit you. We might have stayed longer if our holding tanks weren’t bursting! Never guessed the next dump station available would be Watson Lake so on we went.

I thought you might be interested in seeing what the plant life around there is. The blooms are parsnips and as you can see, lots of ferns. There were also some violets blooming.