Smoky return to Halcyon

I'm up in Beautiful British Columbia. The license plates don't lie...it's gorgeous up here! Towering mountains, pristine lakes. This is the SS Moyie in Kaslo, on Kootenay Lake, one of the province's most spectacular bodies of water. The Moyie cruised the lake as a working boat from the 1890s til 1958. It's now a museum, moored next to a beach in the funky town of Kaslo. You could travel months in BC and see glorious, interesting country every day.

You might think this pic was taken in coastal BC, perhaps among the Gulf Islands or along the Inside Passage south of Prince Rupert. But this is Kootenay Lake, about 300 miles inland! The lake is as gorgeous as Tahoe, with about one quarter the development. When I shot this pic, I was on BC ferries, which runs a 35 minute free ferry as a part of route 3A across the lake. This is one of the best travel bargains anywhere! You get a fine cruise on a world class beautiful lake for nada! At times in the summer, as when I rode the boat, you have to wait over an hour to board. But, there's a beach and restaurant right next to the ferry landing, so no problem.

I returned to Halcyon Hot Springs, a plush resort on Arrow Lake with four pools ranging in temperature from 55 to 104 F. I stayed here two years ago. You hang out in the pools, soak up the rays, kick back in comfy cabins with views of the lake, and dine at a gourmet restaurant. Not bad!

However, just two ridges over from the springs a rather large forest fire was burning. The previous weekend the resort had been briefly evacuated, but this weekend the wind was light westerly, blowing the fire away from us. But...not the smoke, which settled over the region bigtime on Saturday Aug 8. Go to the posts from June 07 and you'll find a pic with a similar view to this one, but under much different meteorological conditions.

The next day I was taking another ferry across Arrow Lake...actually a wide spot in the Columbia River. Blow this pic up and you can see several smoke plumes drifting up the mountain. And check out the lenticular clouds, products of an increasingly strong, moist jet stream that would change the weather from warm and dry to cool and showery.