What a Stink!

So when we hiked around the pool the other day, we met a fellow that told us about some natural hot pools near Canal Flats. We thought we'd check them out as they seemed quite interesting, so in the afternoon we went exploring. The road that takes you there is a logging road so the big trucks are quite frequently seen. We started out doing a fair bit of climbing and then we started dropping into the Lussier River valley where the hot springs were. Sitting in the passenger seat, I happened to look out the side window of the vehicle and about flipped. I couldn't even see the edge of the road, all I saw was a major drop off that made me dizzy. It was weird, I wanted to look, but I didn't... so mostly I just didn't! When we got there we had to hike down a fair distance to where the hot pools were. It was pretty neat, but it really smelled awful! The kids complained loudly, but were not deterred from climbing into the water.

 This is kind of a weird but neat  picture - the kids like to play with the settings on the camera

 Some of the scenery on the drive up - sorry, no up high pictures from the side of the mountain road!

 A real picture of the family enjoying the warm water in the lower pool.

 Beth, Naomi and Charity

 Checking out Alisha's CTR ring - it was sterling silver, but here she had just discovered that it was now gold. Some kind of reaction with the minerals in the pool. It wiped right off though.

I love the golden colored evergreens or tamarac trees.  I can't seem to get enough of them!

So you might wonder how long we stayed to enjoy the hot springs. The little kids lost interest first. It was kind of chilly but I'm sure that's not what drove them from the water. It was the smell of sulfur! They hated it and didn't want to be around it. So they put on their shoes, wrapped a towel around their shoulders and hiked back up the hill to where they could change in to dry clothes. We might have been there 30 minutes.

Afterwards we talked about our excursion and I was amazed at what the family learned from it. The main lesson everyone seemed to come away with was how easy it was to go down the hill to the pools, but the hike back up was steep and difficult. Sin is like that, it is so easy to make mistakes, and one leads to another and when one wants to change they have to climb back up the hill and it is difficult, hard and definitely not fun. Hiking back up that hill represented the process of repentance. Repentance  is not easy, and one has to work at it, but the rewards are so worth it in the end. After hiking back up that hill, we thoroughly enjoyed the view and splendor of the mountains around us. What joy there is in the atonement and the divine gift of repentance that is freely available to us all.