Kootenay National Park

Canadian Rockies Road Trip, Day 7 | Hiking and Exploring in Kootenay National Park | June 2023

When we were planning this trip, we knew we wanted to hit some of Canada’s national parks in the Rocky Mountains. Our focus had been on Banff, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks, simply because those are the ones we’ve heard the most about. But when looking at a map a couple days prior and planning out our route, we realized there was another park relatively nearby we’d never heard of: Kootenay National Park, located in British Columbia. We decided to scrap our plans of spending time in Banff — which we knew would be beautiful, but likely crowded — and instead explore this park we hadn’t heard or seen any pictures of. Our original plan had us arriving in the Banff area over the weekend, which we realized probably wasn’t ideal, and we hoped to find less people and first come-first served campsites available in Kootenay.

We arrived at the South entrance to Kootenay National Park on a Friday afternoon, after kayaking in Columbia Lake in the morning. We bought a park pass that would cover us for the entire time we planned to spend in all the parks, and the ranger told us it was a good idea to come now, in early June, before the summer busy season really begins. We then drove to our first stop in the park, Olive Lake.

Olive Lake is small in size but a beautiful shade of teal green. There’s a quarter mile long trail that goes a short distance around either side of the lake with nice scenic views. Not quite big enough to justify getting out the kayak, but still worth the quick stop.

After driving to an overlook of the Kootenay Valley, we returned back the way we came and went for our second walk, just off the highway on the South side of the park for the Juniper Trail. This trail was a half mile long, going mostly downhill to the stream and a waterfall. It was hard to get a good view of the waterfall without wading into the water, but we enjoyed the lush green surroundings and blue water. Charlotte did great walking down the steps and navigating the switchbacks, but once at the stream she didn’t like the sound of the roaring stream, so we took turns finishing the walk to the waterfall before making our way back.

We spent that evening West of Radium Hot Springs, camping for free in Crown Land. Most roads in that area were fine for our van as long as we took it slow enough. The next morning, we drove back into Kootenay, this time more focused on the central part of the park and hoped to camp within the park to save ourselves from driving the distance back to Radium Hot Springs.

Our first hike of the morning was the Marble Canyon Trail — one of the more popular hikes in the park, but since we started early it wasn’t busy at all. This hike is only a mile long, with plenty of views into the canyon which gets quite deep the further you go. It was impossible to take our eyes off the bright blue color of the water the entire way, and for once we didn’t mind Charlotte’s slower pace as it let us enjoy every bit of this scenic walk. As we walked further back, we also got some nice vistas of the snow capped peaks flanking the valley.

After breakfast at the trailhead, we drove to another trailhead hoping to do another hike, but we set off with low expectations since Charlotte was becoming more pokey. We made it as far as the Kootenay River, which still felt like a success because it was a beautiful sight. Charlotte just wanted to walk on the rocks and sniff around, so we let her take her time, and each enjoyed the views from the bridge over the river.

In the early afternoon, we thought it would be a good idea to find a campsite early since it was a Saturday, so we went in search of a free one Curtis thought was along the highway. After a few tries, we gave up and chose a paid site in McLeod Meadows campground, which is half reservable and half first come-first served. Throughout our driving back and forth, we saw a mountain goat and our first two bears of the trip along the road — one black, one grizzly!

Once we were settled at our site, I let Curtis go for a short hike to Dog Lake, which started right next to our campground. After napping for a couple hours, Charlotte rebounded and wanted to go for another walk, so we wandered through the campground, admiring the wild roses and other wildflowers, until we found the trail Curtis took. We made our way to the river where there were two different suspension bridges that went over the Kootenay River. I was surprised that Charlotte wanted to cross them since they swayed so much! We eventually found a nice place to sit by the water while we waited for Curtis to return.

We’re so glad we changed our plans and were able to spend some time enjoying this park. Someday it would be fun to either experience the park more by water, or by hiking to a peak — but that’s easier said than done, considering most peaks here don’t have trails like what we’re used to. We learned that there’s even a part of the park where they don’t allow you to hike in groups with less than 4 people because of active grizzly dens! I personally am just glad to have Charlotte as an excuse of why I can’t do longer hikes right now, because I know I’m in no way ready for them!