Return to the Cold Hot Place

Camping is a strange kind of vacation: more work, more cooking, less comfort than a hotel and you can return home more tired than when you left, but it has been a treat for our household for years, especially when the weather turns cool.

Miette Hot Springs near Jasper has always been one of our favourite mountain spots, but who wants to bathe in a 39° C pool when it is already 27° outside?

Roche Miette, on the way to Jasper

Six years ago in 2017, Glory and I made our first trek to Miette after snowfall. Audrey joined us in 2018, but Frankentrailer gave up the ghost during set-up, so camping was off that year. 

Fenya and Glory and I returned to Miette in Bride of Frankentrailer in 2019, but Covid closed the pool for two years after that (although Glory and I still camped in 2021 because she missed the mountains) and a mudslide destroyed the road earlier this year, so we thought that was that.

But an interview overheard by chance on the CBC revealed that Miette would indeed open in 2023 for its shortest season ever: Labour Day weekend to Thanksgiving Monday. Unable to wait until 2024, we resolved to go, and let Audrey have her first cool-weather camping experience.

Did I say cool? Cold might be more appropriate. It dropped to freezing our first night and went to -3° the next, but we sustained ourselves in numerous ways. A hot breakfast, for one.

A hot spring for another. They are working reduced hours and a reduced capacity as well as a shortened season, so even though we arrived right at opening time (2 pm) it was still more than half an hour before we got in. But this wonderful place has always been worth the drive so what is a 30-minute wait? After a four-year hiatus, the 60 min soak was completely justified.

Even the refreshing cold plunge was invigorating (after a fashion). Mostly just grateful I didn't seize a piston and need to get airlifted out or something.

We saw numerous elk close to town (keep your distance y'all, the rut is on!) and a sole bighorn on our way to Miette from Wapiti campground, but on our way back we got a close look at a black bear munching on foliage in the ditch on Miette Road:

Even more amazing, it turned out the traffic slowing down where Connaught Drive intersects with the Yellowhead was due to an enormous grizzly lounging by the roadside, the closest I have ever been to one.

And even though the second night was cold, our time outside eating hot Tuna Helper (it's true, everything tastes better when you are cold and hungry!) was aided by the roaring campfire Audrey and Glory had set up while I cooked. 

And the little space heater in the Bride managed to keep the chill off long enough for the sleeping bags to warm up and keep us cozy til morning - barring the occasional late-night visit to the washroom, of course.