Lille

We hiked out to Lille, an old abandoned coal mining town, which there really isn't much left of. If we had a four wheel drive, this wouldn't have been much of a hike, but since we have a little old honda accord, it ended up being an all day hike, and much more interesting. We came back along the other side of the river and saw the old power plant. All the buildings were significantly more worn down than in our guide book which was published only a couple years ago. We found the foundations of the old hotel and the coke ovens and slag pile all fairly close to each other. All the wood buildings were long gone. As you'll find all over the crowsnest pass area, there are lots of four-wheelers, motorbikes, and four wheel drives buzzing around. While we were looking at the coke ovens, someone was doing donuts on the slag pile with an old four-wheel drive pickup. This is really unfortunate, but even with these annoyances there are far fewer people than in the parks (Jasper and Banff), and this often makes it more peaceful.