Day 18: Kootenay National Park, BC

We wake up the next morning and enjoy some saskatoon berry pancakes with our hosts. After packing and saying goodbye we continue on highway BC 93 through Kootenay National Park. The drive is beautiful again: a mix of aqua colored rivers, dense forests, and rocky formations spreading over the mountains and valleys. 

 

 

We stop at Marble Canyon to take a walk on the bridges that cross the deep canyon that is so deep and so narrow that sometimes we can only hear the river below. Yellow is being very careful with his sunglasses each time he looks nervously down the gorge.

 

From there we follow the trail that brings us to the Paint Pots. It will be a 4 miles round trip along the Vermillion river. It is clear there was a forest fire here some years ago. However, the burned trunks are completely surrounded by purple flowers and sprouting pine trees.

 

The environment gets even more colorful when we arrive to the Paint Pots. You know the paint that Native Americans used for their faces? Well, this is where it comes from (for the locals at least). The soil here is ochre. The streams are ochre. The basins at the top of the hill are spilling over with water rich in oxidized iron. The colors coming out of these basins range from lime green to bright orange to neon yellow to Bordeaux red. This place is so different in its environment.

 

While eating some cherries, we are attacked by horse flies. One successfully bites Yellow, who was waiting a little bit too long for Red to kill it on his hand. She was just too scared of these buzzing beasts. We get back on the road and drive across Banff National Park and Yoho National Park on Highway 1. Highway 1 is the major Transcanadian Highway, and when you don't go fast enough people get pretty mad, especially people from Alberta. They might think they are still in the Calgary suburbs. The drive is gorgeous once again along the Canadian Pacific Railroad with its spiral corridors that were made to overcome the challenge of crossing the Continental Divide. 

We arrive to Golden Municipal Campground in Golden, BC around 6 pm. We cook some pan fried noodles and veggies while some youngsters are riding their bikes all around our campsite. As night is descending, the mosquitoes make their appearance. We discover that the hard way, while taking advantage of the free wifi at the camp's picnic shelter. When the last mosquito is killed in the RV, we can sleep peacefully. Well, peacefully with our earplugs. Golden Municipal Campground is right next to the train tracks, and this is a major railway corridor...