Kootenay National Park: See
The park's main attractions include Radium Hot Springs, the Paint Pots, Sinclair Canyon, Marble Canyon, and Olive Lake. The hot springs offer a hot springs pool ranging from 35 to 47 °C (95 to 117 °F). Just outside the park's southwestern entrance is the town of Radium Hot Springs. The town is named for the odourless hot springs located just inside the park boundary. The park's northeastern entrance, connects to Castle Junction in Banff National Park and the Trans-Canada Highway via Vermillion Pass, a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border, at an elevation of 1,651 metres (5,416').
Because of the relatively small width of the park (8 km on each side of the highway), many of the park's attractions are situated near the road. Numa Falls is a short drive south of Marble Canyon and is accessible directly by Highway 93 which cuts through the park.
1 Sinclair Canyon
2 Olive Lake
3 Kootenay Valley Viewpoint
Kootenay Park Lodge (hotel), see Sleep section below.
4 Marble Canyon
5 Continental Divide
6 Paint Pots. The Paint Pots are an acidic, cold water, mineral spring system from which ochre is deposited at spring outlets. The minerals are principally iron oxide which produces the water and mud's reddish colour but other similar minerals can also be present and vary the colours to include various shades of yellow, red and brown. The acidic, metal-rich water has limited capacity to support living species, but at least 14 species of algae, one liverwort and one moss species, as well as some extremophilic bacteria, have been identified living in those waters. The ochre was collected by the Ktunaxa people for use as pigments and the iron oxide was commercially mined for use in paint manufacturing for nearly two decades until the park was established in 1920. (updated Apr 2023)