Day- and Backpacking Hikes In Kootenay
If you have time and energy for only one long walk in Kootenay, make it the Kindersley Pass Trail, a strenuous 9.8-kilometre trail that climbs to Kindersley Pass and then cuts northeast for the steep final push to Kindersley Summit (2210m). Here you can enjoy the sublime prospect of an endless succession of peaks fading to the horizon away to the northeast. Rather than double back down through the open tundra, many people push on another 2km (trail vague) and contour around the head of the Sinclair Creek valley before dropping off the ridge (the Kindersley-Sinclair Coll) to follow the well-defined Sinclair Creek Trail (6.4km) down to meet the highway 1km from the starting point (be sure to do the hike this way round - the Sinclair Creek Trail is a long, dull climb). Most of Kootenay's other longish day-walks are in the park's northern half, accessed on the west side of the highway from the Marble Canyon, Paint Pots, Numa Creek and Floe Lake parking areas. The Rockwall Trail , an incredible thirty-kilometre (54km including approach trails; 1450m ascent), backpacking high-level trail, follows the line of the mountains on the west side of the highway, and can be joined using four of the six trails described below. You could walk it in two days, but could easily spend longer, particularly as there are five backcountry campsites en route. From north to south on the highway, the trails start with the Kaufmann Lake Trail (15km one-way; 570m ascent; allow 4-6hr one-way), which climbs to one of the park's loveliest high-mountain lakes (there's also a campsite here). A trail from the Paint Pots runs for 2km before dividing to provide three onward options: the first to the dull Ottertail Pass, the second up Tumbling Creek (10.3km; 440m ascent to the intersection with the Rockwall Trail), and the third and best option the Helmet Creek Trail (14.3km; 310m ascent), a long day-hike to the amazing 365-metre Helmet Waterfalls (another intersection with the Rockwall Trail). The best of the day-hikes after Kindersley Pass is the easier Floe Lake Trail (10.5km; 715m ascent), up to a spellbinding lake edged by a 1000-metre sheer escarpment and a small glacier. There are campsites on the route, and another tie-in to the Rockwall Trail. The Numa Creek Trail (6.4km; 115m ascent) to the north is less enthralling - though you could use it as a downhill leg to add to the Floe Lake Trail - as are the series of fire-road walks advertised in the park: unless you're mountain biking, therefore, ignore the Simpson River, West Kootenay, Honeymoon Pass and East Kootenay trails.
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