One of the things I thought we'd see travelling in mid-October was some spectacular displays of fall colours. We were not disappointed. This was the view across Bear Lake along Highway 31A between New Denver and Kaslo, British Columbia.
When we started seriously talking about taking a holiday this year, my wife and I looked at August as when it would happen. By the time August arrived, we were far too busy with both of our new careers to fit time off into either of our schedules. September was almost immediately skipped as an option because of scheduling conflicts. However, we found a window in October.
At first it sounded as if that would be far too late in the year to enjoy anything, but I turned to the internet once we had decided on a destination. In the early discussions of a holiday this year we were looking at going as far as Jasper, Alberta. It had been several years since I had been in the area, but knew there were many small communities along the way we could explore.
We soon started looking at possibly taking a trip to Vancouver Island. It had been several more years since either of us had been in that part of British Columbia. It didn’t take long to stroke that destination off of the list. We had such a good time in August 2016 in the southern Kootenays that we thought seeing a slightly different part of the region would be as fun and interesting.
By the time we locked down our dates of “somewhere between October 10th and 20th” I started looking over maps. I suggested a trip that would take us to Revelstoke for one night, down to Nakusp for another and into Ainsworth Hot Springs for one more. I thought the way home could see a night spent in Nelson and another in Grand Forks and then back to our home.
What we ended up doing was pretty close to that. Some attractions we would like to have visited were closed for the season, as we expected. However, there were many others that were still open either to the end of October or were open all year anyway. That made our choices a lot easier when it came to where we would spend the night and where we would just go through.
Our first night was in Revelstoke. We got there in the early evening and spent the night. We explored the region the following day including Nakusp but got there far too early to take a room. We ended up getting to Ainsworth Hot Springs a day sooner than planned and stayed there for two nights. The first day gave us time to explore Kaslo and New Denver.
The relaxed pace gave us time to really look around the historic towns along Highway 31A and got us back to the hotel mid-afternoon. That gave Brenda and I time to spend in the hot springs or just relaxing in the room. The morning we checked out we got as far as Nelson in the morning. It gave us time to revisit parts of the city we saw last year as well as some new sights.
What neither of us expected, although we were travelling in mid-October, was that Nelson was so cold. It shortened our time there and got us back on the road. By early afternoon we were in much warmer Castlegar. We revisited some favourite sites and decided to spend the night. The hotel was exceptional and Brenda actually pre-booked a room for early next year as a result.
The following day we took our time and stopped in some familiar territory along Highway 3 including Christina Lake. We looked up an acquaintance that had recently moved to Grand Forks and killed time visiting and later wandering around the downtown core. A few places we wanted to see were closed, but it was also a Sunday so it made sense.
While still in Grand Forks and not in a hurry to get home we made a last minute decision to spend a night in a hotel we had spent two nights in last time we were in the area. We had picked up some groceries earlier in the day and just relaxed in the room with sandwiches. It was a nice way to bring our actual holiday on the road to an end.
The following morning we poked along the highway stopping at places along the way we had done the same last year including Greenwood and Osoyoos. We got back home mid-afternoon, unloaded the car and talked about taking a short day trip in a couple of days to finish off our actual dates of “somewhere between October 10th and 20th.”
It was the first actual break both of had taken since after we launched into turning our ‘side hustles’ into our new full-time careers. We had been working pretty hard over the past year and a bit to get a good foundation in place for both of our ventures so we could take a little holiday. It was well worth the time and mid-October was not such a bad time to do it either!
At first it sounded as if that would be far too late in the year to enjoy anything, but I turned to the internet once we had decided on a destination. In the early discussions of a holiday this year we were looking at going as far as Jasper, Alberta. It had been several years since I had been in the area, but knew there were many small communities along the way we could explore.
We soon started looking at possibly taking a trip to Vancouver Island. It had been several more years since either of us had been in that part of British Columbia. It didn’t take long to stroke that destination off of the list. We had such a good time in August 2016 in the southern Kootenays that we thought seeing a slightly different part of the region would be as fun and interesting.
By the time we locked down our dates of “somewhere between October 10th and 20th” I started looking over maps. I suggested a trip that would take us to Revelstoke for one night, down to Nakusp for another and into Ainsworth Hot Springs for one more. I thought the way home could see a night spent in Nelson and another in Grand Forks and then back to our home.
What we ended up doing was pretty close to that. Some attractions we would like to have visited were closed for the season, as we expected. However, there were many others that were still open either to the end of October or were open all year anyway. That made our choices a lot easier when it came to where we would spend the night and where we would just go through.
Our first night was in Revelstoke. We got there in the early evening and spent the night. We explored the region the following day including Nakusp but got there far too early to take a room. We ended up getting to Ainsworth Hot Springs a day sooner than planned and stayed there for two nights. The first day gave us time to explore Kaslo and New Denver.
The relaxed pace gave us time to really look around the historic towns along Highway 31A and got us back to the hotel mid-afternoon. That gave Brenda and I time to spend in the hot springs or just relaxing in the room. The morning we checked out we got as far as Nelson in the morning. It gave us time to revisit parts of the city we saw last year as well as some new sights.
What neither of us expected, although we were travelling in mid-October, was that Nelson was so cold. It shortened our time there and got us back on the road. By early afternoon we were in much warmer Castlegar. We revisited some favourite sites and decided to spend the night. The hotel was exceptional and Brenda actually pre-booked a room for early next year as a result.
The following day we took our time and stopped in some familiar territory along Highway 3 including Christina Lake. We looked up an acquaintance that had recently moved to Grand Forks and killed time visiting and later wandering around the downtown core. A few places we wanted to see were closed, but it was also a Sunday so it made sense.
While still in Grand Forks and not in a hurry to get home we made a last minute decision to spend a night in a hotel we had spent two nights in last time we were in the area. We had picked up some groceries earlier in the day and just relaxed in the room with sandwiches. It was a nice way to bring our actual holiday on the road to an end.
The following morning we poked along the highway stopping at places along the way we had done the same last year including Greenwood and Osoyoos. We got back home mid-afternoon, unloaded the car and talked about taking a short day trip in a couple of days to finish off our actual dates of “somewhere between October 10th and 20th.”
It was the first actual break both of had taken since after we launched into turning our ‘side hustles’ into our new full-time careers. We had been working pretty hard over the past year and a bit to get a good foundation in place for both of our ventures so we could take a little holiday. It was well worth the time and mid-October was not such a bad time to do it either!
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