Kootenay National Park, Wolf Pup Adventures

Another week living on the road, another Canadian National Park — Kootenay 🙂 We stayed in a campground inside the park, near the town of Radium Hot Springs. Radium is known for being the winter home to a large herd of bighorn sheep. There are sculptures of bighorns all over town. And it didn’t take long before we spotted some of these majestic animals, early arrivers coming down from their summer home up in the higher elevations.

The town of Radium Hot Springs does indeed have hot springs. They are located only a couple of miles from our camp, super convenient and the first thing we did after arriving. They have a hot pool and a cool pool. We stuck to the hot pool — very relaxing to soak in the warm water being surrounded by forest and the rock walls of Sinclair Canyon.

The next day we hiked the Sinclair Canyon trail which conveniently runs through our campground. It’s nice when you can hike or bike right from camp. The trail has some very steep descents and climbs. It feels like a completely different climate in the bottom of the canyon where large cedar trees dominate and Sinclair Creek runs and the tall canyon walls keep it dark and cool. We encountered a couple of other canyon alcoves that similarly get little sunlight and feel like a little oasis of lush green vegetation and tall cedar trees.

For my solo ride this week, I decided to drive to Invermere which is the next town south of Radium. It sits on Windermere Lake, a huge reservoir along the Columbia River — yep the same Columbia River that runs between Washington and Oregon. For this ride, I did two out-n-back’s, the first being a climb up to the mountain village of Panorama. It is a popular ski area in winter and golf and mountain biking destination during summer. Lots of beautiful homes but felt like a ghost town since most of them were vacant vacation rentals. The mountain views were nice as well as the big descent back to the car. I started the ride at sunrise to avoid the 93 degree high forecasted for the afternoon. The early start was cold but on the way back down the mountain, the sun finally rose high enough to reach the road and warmed me up quickly. At the car, I ditched the jacket and any other unnecessary gear and rode to the Invermere town center area to grab a quick bite to eat. After some treats at the Invermere Bakery, I joined up with the Markin-MacPhail Trail which is a recently finished bike path that connects Invermere to Fairmont Hot Springs along the west side of Windermere Lake. I was not expecting a bike path with nearly 2000 ft of elevation gain and steep grades up to 13%. Most bike paths are family-friendly, but this one seemed to have been built for more advanced cyclists which was fine by me 🙂 A beautiful bike path that cuts through forest and open areas with great views of the lake and mountains. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We hiked to Paint Pots and Marble Canyon inside Kootenay National Park. The Paint Pots are named because the area is a big deposit of ochre which is an orange mineral used as pigment for paints and dyes. Spring water comes up from the ground creating blue and green pools around the orange, ochre-rich ground which look like “paint pots” 🙂 After checking out the Paint Pots, we continued hiking to Marble Canyon which I think is the gem of Kootenay. Similar to Maligne Canyon in Jasper, Marble Canyon is very deep and narrow in areas. At the back of the canyon, there is a spectacular waterfall as the strong current rushes down into the canyon. The shores of the creek are orange in color due to the ochre-rich ground nearby. Beautiful hike.

We attempted to hike at the Cross River Recreation Area. It is next to Kootenay National Forest on the Kootenay River. Didn’t do enough research. Turned into a debacle. It seems the province of British Columbia will partner with private companies to help build access to trails and wilderness areas. But since the private company, in this case a mountain resort, manages the land and the trails, maps and signage is sorely lacking. And they can charge whatever fees they like for access. This one charged $15 per person just for a day pass for the trails. Ridiculous. So we bailed and decided to spend another day relaxing in the soothing waters of the hot spring 🙂

Invermere has a Saturday Farmer’s Market. We decided to do a bike ride early before it got hot then hit up the farmer’s market. Turned out to be a smoky day so we couldn’t see the mountains but the Markin-MacPhail Trail was fun. The farmer’s market is good-sized for a small town. Picked up a Pinot Noir from a BC winery.

On our last full day, we hiked at the Lillian Lake Recreational Area. The trail network is more for mountain biking but we hooked up to a trail that follows the cliff above Toby Creek. Not many bikes on it and the views of the canyon was excellent. Hiked to some cool hoodoos before heading back the same way.

We had a good time at Radium Hot Springs and Kootenay National Park, but it is definitely no Banff or Jasper or Canmore 🙂 But that’s alright, still lots of natural beauty to explore. Next stop, Vancouver, BC. Stay tuned…