Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shaped like a lightning bolt, this narrow 140,600-hectare (347,300-acre) park lies on the
British Columbia side of the Canadian Rockies. The park's northern section is bordered by
Banff National Park; Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park lies to the east and Yoho National
Park to the north. Highway 93, extending for 94 kilometers (58 miles) through the park,
provides spectacular mountain vistas. Along the route you'll find many short and easy in-
terpretive hikes, scenic viewpoints, hot springs, picnic areas, and roadside interpretive ex-
hibits. The park isn't particularly noted for its day-hiking opportunities, but backpacker
destinations such as Kaufmann Lake and the Rockwall rival almost any other area in the
Canadian Rockies. Even if you never leave the highway, the scarred hillsides from wild-
fires that swept through the park in 2001 and 2003 will be obvious. The fires jumped the
highway in places, burned bridges and information booths, and forced the closure of some
trails due to the danger of falling trees; check at local information centers for the latest up-
dates.
Kootenay has the fewest services of the four contiguous mountain national parks. Day-
use areas, a gas station and lodge, and three campgrounds are the only roadside services in-
side the park. The small service town of Radium Hot Springs, at the junction of Highways
93 and 95 near the park's west gate, has a permanent population of well under 1,000 but
offers a range of accommodations, cafés and restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores.
Radium and the surrounding Columbia River Valley is covered in its own section at the
end of this chapter. The park is open year-round, although you should check road condi-
tions in winter, when avalanche-control work and snowstorms can close Highway 93 for
short periods.
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