Summer Vacation - Day 5

This was Wednesday August 8th.  We packed up in the morning and left the Harlech campsite.  We continued down the David Thompson Highway into the front ranges of the Rockies.  Our Austrian relatives Martina and Karl absolutely love the Rockies, despite the fact that they visit the Alps all the time.  We stopped at the Mount Michener viewpoint, and at Windy Point, both along the shores of Abraham Reservoir.  Windy Point was really cool... with wildflowers blooming all over the place.  True to it's name it was windy, and the water level in the reservoir was higher than usual for this time of year.

I even managed to capture a photograph of the elusive Rocky Mountain Sea Lion...

After this stop we continued on a short distance to the Kootenay Plains and the campsite at Two O'Clock Creek.  We settled in here and then decided to go for a hike.  We walked a kilometer or two down the highway to the trailhead for the Siffleur Falls trail.  This was a hike of approx. 3 additional kilometers up the valley of the Siffleur River, to the falls.  The trail starts along the shores of the North Saskatchewan River, which it crosses on a suspension bridge, and then over to the Siffleur valley.  We didn't get very far before a summer thundershower rolled in and put an end to our hike.  We had to take shelter under some trees as the rain came down in sheets and we were pelted with hail.  Karl, being a marathon runner, volunteered to run back to the campsite and get one of the vehicles so that the girls wouldn't have to walk back in the rain.  Annelise in particular was getting quite frightened by the lightning that was flashing all around us, and the heavy thunder.

Fortunately a vehicle driven by a couple of young guys stopped and picked up Karl along the highway and he didn't have to run all the way back to Two O'Clock Creek.  In no time at all he was over at the trail head with  his motorhome and picked us all up.  We were soaked to the skin and cold but it made for quite the adventure.  Within a couple of hours the sky cleared right up and the sun came out again.