We began our second full day in Canada well rested and ready to hit the parks. Our destination for the day was Kootenay National Park, which turned out to be one of our favorite places!

We began at the Continental Divide between Kootenay (British Columbia) and Banff (Alberta).

Next we headed for Stanley Glacier. The snow was heavier than it had been the day before and we met a hiker who informed us we may not get too far without snow shoes.

We hiked out as far as we could and found a few miles in that he was right…

Whoops! On to Marble Canyon!

If you are in Kootenay, Marble Canyon is a must do. We both agreed that it was our favorite hike of the trip; snow shoes not required 🙂

Marble Canyon is full of limestone and dolomite leftover from when the area was once covered by a tropical sea.

The hike was easy and the falls were semi frozen which was quite a sight.

The views were incredible and we found the perfect resting spot at the top of the canyon.

After Marble Canyon we ate our packed lunch and did a quick hike to Numa Creek.

I was dying to go to a hot spring, and Radium Hot Springs (at the end of Kootenay as it runs into the town of Radium) was one of the more famous and on our way home. The views on the way to Radium were some of the best yet and we took our time, making many a pit stop for photo ops.

I couldn’t wait to get to the Hot Springs and was more than a little disappointed when it turned out to basically be a glorified swimming pool.

No photos allowed and to add insult to injury they weren’t even that hot. Womp womp. Thankfully we found Lussier Hot Springs a few days later which were much more authentic but more on that later. As we left, we drove into the town of Radium which was cute and quirky and more than made up for the disappointing hot springs.

We ended our day with dinner at the Horsethief Creek Pub and I was more than satisfied with my poutine.

We drove back to Golden, stopping for a big horn sheep crossing, and called it an early night since we planned to get up early to hike Jasper in the morning!