Paint Pots

We stopped along the Kootenay River in Kootenay National Park to hike the short trail to the Paint Pots, an area of ochre beds described in the park brochure as "an area of unusual physical and chemical activity" that has "a history of use by both Aboriginal groups and Europeans." We hiked up to several ponds, the springs where the ochre deposits accumulate and from which they flow down into the valley covering the area with red ochre (see insets).