Moominmama's Adventures

  Wherein Moominmama hits the waters of the Coeur d'Alene basin and gets a shock when she learns about its lingering pollution... Moominmama dropped down the chimney that is northern Idaho after crossing from Kootenay National Park in Canada. Her license plate caused momentary confusion to a border guard who didn't recognize New Hampshire's Live Free or Die logo. She knows she is far from home! With a population just over 58,000 people, Coeur d'Alene is one of the fastest growing cities in Idaho. One of its main attractions is the Coeur d'Alene Lake: 25 miles long, with a plethora of bays and a shoreline of over 100 miles thanks to a former glacier. This means the city and the communities around it are very much oriented to the water. Here's the lake-facing portion of the downtown with its marina, obviously in boom mode. This is one of two sky cranes I saw downtown. This whole area was shaped by glaciers. The Coeur d'Alene River became part of an ice sheet 9...

Wherein Moominmama learns about Cambrian fossils, shares her campground with bighorn sheep and kayaks the Columbia River... The entrance to Redstreak Campground is up a steep road, and the grass on either side is a favorite of the local bighorn sheep. Moominmama even spotted them in the town of Radium Hot Springs, relaxing on a grassy verge along Main Street. The town has adopted them (or maybe vice versa), and inside its main traffic circle is what first looked like an abstract sculpture until I realized it was a giant recreation of their magnificent horns.  Radium is the entryway into Kootenay National Park on the western side of the Rockies. The park stretches from Radium to the Continental Divide and Banff, twisting northeast between mountains with rivers and creeks feeding into the Kootenay River which, in turn, feeds the Columbia River in Radium's valley. In this photo, Tookum Creek has carved a deep channel known as Marble Canyon as the green water runs into the Vermilion Ri...

In which Moominmama finally arrives in the Canadian Rockies and enjoys a land made beautiful by its proximity to glaciers... Moominmama's first hike in Yoho National Park was to Emerald Lake, pictured above. Like much of the water here, it's a piercing blue-green, sometimes clouded by glacial silt, known as rock flour. That's thanks to this guy here, Michael Glacier, barely visible through the clouds, which feeds Emerald Lake.  Moominmama is on the western side of the Rockies, staying in a town in the valley between the Columbia range and the Rockies, where the Kicking Horse River (popular for its rapids) merges with the grand Columbia. The Kicking Horse also has the mark of glaciers in its waters, the milky green of fast-moving water that keeps the pale rock flour churned up as it flows. Moominmama has seen this on the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies in the famous Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise areas east of the Continental Divide. This time, the goal is to see some o...

  Wherein Moominmama visits a land of shrinking glaciers and brilliant wildflowers and meets another friendly marmot... Behold the Meeting of the Waters, where the runoff from the Illecillewaet and Asulkan glaciers meet. Moominmama took a hike that originally led to the foot of the Illecillewaet Glacier, (pronounced ill-a-sihouette) an area that is now just a cascade of water. The glacier itself is out of view, having retreated almost a mile and about 2,000 feet vertically up the rock.  Moominmama is not yet in the Canadian Rockies. It turns out these mountains west of the Rockies are called the Columbia Range, and Moominmama is staying in a section known as the Selkirks where Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Park are located. This is one of the benefits of travel -- I've just discovered an entire mountain range between the Rockies and the Coastal Range that I never knew existed! This year is the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation (per the United Nations), and I...