CANADIAN ROCKIES - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 474

To Kootenay Valley
Leaving the hot springs, the road parallels Sinclair Creek, crests 1,486-meter (4,870-foot)
Sinclair Pass, and passes small Olive Lake, which is ringed with bright yellow wildflowers
in summer. At Kootenay River Viewpoint a splendid view overlooks the wild Kootenay
River Valley below and the snowcapped mountains along the Continental Divide.
The highway then descends to the valley floor, passes two riverside picnic areas, and
crosses the pretty Kootenay River at Kootenay Crossing. The official ribbon-cutting ce-
remony opening the Banff-Windermere Road took place here in 1923. Today you'll find a
roadside historical exhibit, hiking trails, and a warden's station. As you cross the river and
pass small, green Kootenay Pond, your eyes will revel in views of milky-green rivers, lush
grassy meadows, tree-covered hills, and craggy, snowcapped peaks; keep your eyes peeled
for mountain goats.
The highway then climbs over a low saddle and descends to the Vermilion River. On
the descent, you'll pass a particularly nice picnic spot at Wardle Creek. Across the river,
the mountainside is scarred black, the result of wildfires that devastated over 4,000 hectares
(9,900 acres) of forest in 2001 and 2003. Left to take their natural course, the fires spread
south along the Simpson River drainage and down to the Vermilion River, burning them-
selves out as the first winter snow fell.
MM Paint Pots
A scenic one-kilometer (0.6-mile) trail (20 minutes each way) leads over the Vermilion
River to this unique natural wonder: three circular ponds stained red, orange, and mustard
yellow by oxide-bearing springs. The First Nations people, who believed that animal spirits
resided in these springs, collected ocher from around the pools. They mixed it with animal
fat or fish oil and then used it in ceremonial body and rock painting. The ocher had a spiritu-
al association and was used in important rituals. Europeans, seeing an opportunity to “add
to the growing economy of the nation,” mined the ocher in the early 1900s and shipped it
to paint manufacturers in Calgary.