The Cascade pools is a nice place to hang out. It's got picnic tables, paths with bridges to walk over, streams that you can dam and get across, and fields you can nap in. It makes one feel in the middle of nature... until the pools dry up in the winter. It made me ask where the water came from. That's when I found out that the river that used to be here was diverted to the Cascade Canal, which is directed down two comstocks to generate power. Of course, that made me really wonder what was here 100 years ago. I found a photograph taken from Sulphur mountain which showed a much larger Cascade river running into the Bow Valley where the highway currently runs.
It snowed the day before I went to the pools with my camera. I decided to go anyway. Wandering down the river was nice, until I got to the Trans Canada Highway bridge, where I was jolted back to the reality of what happened here. The river, once free flowing, now subjected to engineered channels, pools, and culverts.