May 19, 2026: Radium Hot Springs to Calgary

We had a quick breakfast in our room again, and then checked in for our whitewater rafting trip with Kootenay River Runners. Miles was still a bit low-energy, but he knew that they were counting on us to ensure enough people for the trip, and that all he'd really need to do was go along for the ride. In the end, they collapsed two separate rafts into one full raft of 11 guests plus our guide, Quentin.

We took a ~30-minute ride in a school bus, driven by Russ - he and Quentin kept up a humorous patter en route, and Quentin shared interesting facts about the area along the way. He pointed out where an RV had gone over the fence at a scenic lookout - luckily it stuck on the edge of the precipice and all survived. He also told us about magnesite, which is mined in Kootenay National Park - it has exceptional thermal resistance and has been used for heat shield on space rockets/shuttles. Then we turned off the highway and onto a mining/logging road, where Russ was on a CB radio to notify of our position and ensure we pulled out of the way of any oncoming trucks.

We got to our put-in spot on the Kootenay River, which has class II-III rapids. We suited up in our splash gear, helmets and PFDs. Quentin gave us our safety training, and then we got in the raft.

It was a cooler, cloudy day that seemed to threaten rain, and the river was quite cold (4 degrees Celsius), so our feet got numb, even with neoprene booties, and Miles' hands were very cold too. At least it wasn't snowing, as Quentin told us it had been 2 days prior when they did the first trip of the season, and in the end it didn't even rain. We were happy to have a snack break along the way (hot chocolate, cheese, meat and crackers, and cinnamon buns) and warm up a little. The river was a beautiful blue-gray, but two days earlier had been muddy brown, and ran through a somewhat winding course with rocky cliffs and occasional small waterfalls. We saw a few whitetail deer bounding up the slopes. Although some of the waves were quite large, the raft easily rolled over them, and Quentin kept us all coordinated with helping to paddle when needed, so it was a relaxing ride.

The route back included an even rougher stretch through the woods before returning to the mining road - I wondered at times if the bus could really handle the mud and uneven terrain, but it did. Our splash gear had kept us dry, except for the fact that my pants had lost their waterproofing, so I had a damp ride until I could change into dry clothing from the car.

We went for warm bowls of tomato parmesan soup and pastries at the Big Horn Cafe for lunch across the street, tried unsuccessfully to shop for souvenirs for Miles to bring home for his friends (the only shop in the village is open only half the week), then drove back out the canyon pass yet again to continue on Highway 93 through Kootenay National Park on our way back to Calgary.

We stopped (safely!) at the same scenic viewpoint Quentin had pointed out, noticing the broken stone wall where the RV had crashed. Further down the road, we made a quick stop at Numa Falls (0.6 km), where we took photos of some fellow visitors standing alongside Vermilion River, and they took photos of us.

Then we headed just a few minutes more to the Paint Pots (2 km, but we didn't walk the full extent), during which time it started to downpour. By the time we put on our rain gear and started walking, the rain petered out. But we were happy to have our rain pants on to protect our clothing from the vivid ochre-yellow and red-orange mud underfoot, which are coloured by iron oxide springs - it was a strangely colourful yet desolate landscape, which reminded me of Edward Burtynsky's photographs of nickel tailings. In the early 1900s, ochre was mined from this sacred Indigenous site to be made into paint, but extraction stopped in 1920 when the park was established. The high acidity and trace metals in the water make it uninhabitable for much wildlife (no fish, amphibians, or water bugs live in the pools). Miles touched some of the wet rocks, which left his hands smelling strongly of iron.

A few minutes further we came to Marble Canyon (1.4 km), at which point the sunshine was back. I think this may have been the most beautiful site of the trip - the water so beautifully bright blue, the white limestone and dolomite patches gleaming (not actually marble), the canyon astoundingly deep and narrow, and the fact that we had it all to ourselves. There was a forest fire in 2003, so many of the regrowing trees are still quite small. Miles had fun dropping snowballs to splash in the water of Tokumm Creek dizzyingly far below as we crossed the many (seven in total) bridges. The canyon is both deeper than Johnston Canyon (up to 60m/200 ft versus 30m/98 ft) and a much narrower slot shape (only 3-6 m wide). How fantastic that this amazing natural wonder was our last stop of the trip!

We had a peaceful drive the rest of the way back to Canmore, with little traffic as the highway wound along the Vermilion River. We stopped off for a lovely sushi dinner at The Wild Orchid Bistro, which we had enjoyed on our previous Banff-Jasper trip. Then a little further to our hotel (Applause by Clique) conveniently near the airport. The beds had customizable lighting beneath, like blinged-out cars.