Banff and Kootenay – August 19th – 20th

After a very cold night, we left Jasper National Park and drove back through Banff on our way to Kootenay National Park. On the way, we split up for a few hours while Dani did some internet research at the Visitor’s Center in Lake Louise (in Banff National Park) and I went to get campsite at Marble Canyon in Kootenay. After living in about 12 square feet for a few weeks, a couple needs some space every once in a while… or every day. After successfully getting a campsite and downloading the rest of our audiobook (The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, highly recommended!) we met back up and waited for some of the massive crowd to die down by playing dominoes. With the crowds still lingering, but nowhere near as bad as they were, we checked out Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Moraine Lake was extraordinarily gorgeous with a deep turquoise color and surrounded by glacier-topped peaks; no wonder it is on the Canadian $20 bill! Slightly less beautiful, greener, and more crowded, Lake Louise is a fairly commercialized lake surrounded by a sprawling Fairmont resort. Still, both lakes were amazing and well worth the time to see. That night, it was so cold that I allowed Tucker to sleep upstairs, even though we would never get out all his hair and dirt from our bedding and he typically takes up most of the bed (surprising, considering how small he is). Dani was very pleased!

The view from the "Rockpile" at Moraine Lake

The next morning, we checked out the main sights in Kootenay; Paint Pots and Marble Canyon. After seeing so many beautiful and awesome sights throughout the trip, we weren’t expecting much from these two humble sights, but we were happily surprised! Paint Pots is a collection of pools that have a high concentration of iron. A cold spring feeds a stream that spreads the iron out and creates an amazing area of deep orange-red clay called ochre. With the stream running through it, it honestly looks like a river of Tikka Masala sauce! Even more impressive was Marble Canyon, carved over thousands of years by a glacier-fed stream, the unassuming canyon hike begins as walk along a small river that has cut a few feet into the rock. Within ten minutes of walking, you are on the ridge of the narrow canyon looking down around 60 feet to the river below. In some places, the canyon walls wave and bend so much you can’t even see the river. The out-and-back hike ends at the falls that have slowly cut their way through the rock, forming the impressive canyon. This was definitely the highlight of Kootenay National Park in our book. Afterwards, we headed down to Radium Hot Springs where we soaked and relaxed for a couple hours (we like hot springs). That night we camped on Crown Land at Lake Enid Recreation Area outside of the national parks where we fell asleep to the wild, peaceful and comforting ambiance of gunshots, partiers, and generators.

The stream of tikka masala sauce at Paint Pots!

One of the impressive views looking into Marble Canyon.