Day 20: Kootenay National Park

After breakfast, we leave the campsite and arrive in Radium Hot Springs about 1 hour later. We inquire at the visitor center about the best options for our visit to Kootenay National Park. Originally, a 5-6 kilometer hike in the park was planned. But the other travelers are not really in the mood for hiking. So our drive takes us to the viewpoint 15 kilometers away, where we get a view of the landscape with lots of pine trees, mountains, and the Kootenay River. Then we stop at Olive Lake and enjoy a short walk of a few hundred meters to the lake after a lunch break. It is green-blue and occasionally bubbles rise from the bottom. The source that feeds the lake is nearby. Small trout weighing only 60 grams live here.

Afterwards, we drive back towards Radium to visit the hot springs. The children really want to swim. We have to wait until people come out of the swimming pool again, then we are allowed to enter after a waiting time of about 30 minutes. There are two pools, a cold one with 29 °C and a warm one with 39°C. We cool off first and then relax in the warm pool. The children slide and Erik jumps from the 1-meter diving board. There used to be a pond here, which was converted into a pool. After 2 hours, we leave the pool and stop again at a viewpoint for a rock pass. We take a few steps and see the two opposite rocks that have been shortened for the road. Now we leave Kootenay National Park, the kids become Junior Park Ranchers again, heading north. Just before Golden, we reach our campsite for today. Unfortunately, there are many mosquitoes here again, which bite us. We spray ourselves a lot, but the little bugs still bite. The children see a small garden snake on the path and the alders circle above the site.