Kootenay National Park (BC) Vacation Pictures

Here is a mountain/road scene as you drive into Kootenay NP.

Here are some pictures from the Paint Pots at Ochre Creek. Basically the ochre in the ground wells up in springs. It gets deposited around the spring until it chokes the spring off and the spring comes out somewhere else.
The soil and streams have such a strange color in this area

Here is what the soil looks like in a clearing. In the foreground you can see old equipment that was used to collect the ochre. The ochre was used as a paint pigment. The ochre was piled into rows and then scopped up.

Here is the pool of a paint pot. The water is clear because the ochre has settled out.

Believe it or not, this is a stream!