Today we went on a couple of trails. The first was to the 'Cave & Basin' which is where the hot springs were first dicovered leading to the start of Canada's first national park. Disappointingly both the cave and the basin is closed at the moment as they are re-furbishing it to increase it's appeal as a tourist destination I think and isn't due to re-open until 2012!! We could see through the window to the basin but it just looked like an abandoned swimming pool.

The Marsh Loop was a very small trail just off from the Cave & Basin that we did after, and then we followed the signs for 'Sundance Canyon'. This was about a 1.5-2 hour walk and it was absolutely freezing today! It was sunny though so very deceiving- I could definitely have done with more layers on. Anyway I was expecting to get there and see a massive canyon with beautiful views but we just reached this spot where it had the 'Sundance Canyon' sign. There was a small bridge and stream and that was pretty much it. There was a 2-3km hike that lead off into the woods and up so many hundred metres but we weren't really appropriately dressed for changes in weather from going up any higher, there was an 'Attention' poster on the tree warning about how we'd be more likely to encounter black and grizzly bears as at this time of the year they are closing in on berries and other valuable food sources, and my legs were really sore from where they'd gotten so cold and the material of my trousers was constantly rubbing against them so at this point we decided to head back and grab some lunch. We saw 3 woodpeckers on our walk! 2 of which were really low to the ground. One was lovely, it was black and white with a bright red patch on it's head. I've never actually seen a woodpecker before. I've seen lots of different birds since being here. The magpies over here aren't really that scared. We were sat on a step eating lunch and I had picked out a piece of lettuce from my sandwich and put it beside me ready to put in the bin after I'd eaten. A magpie flew down behind me and kept looking at it. He came a bit closer and then flew off the step, then came up again and edged a bit closer but flew back down again. He did this about 5 times getting closer and closer seeing if he could grab it until eventually he did and started eating it. I couldn't believe it, I've never known birds like that get so close to people before.

Also we saw what can only be described as a STUG!! This dog looked like a cross between a staff and a pug! I wanted to ask what it was but the lady wandered off too quickly. I've seen so many pugs over here!

We headed back to the hostel, had dinner and then popped to the pub downstairs. Got talking to a really nice Australian girl who thought because of our build and hair colour that we were Swedish!! Not heard that before.

Up early tomorrow as we're heading into Canmore for the day.