Hiking Canada 2023: The Paint Pots & Nearby Trails

On July 27, 2023, Joan and I set out for a less ambitious hiking day than yesterday's hike towards Ball Pass. We drove down Highway 93 again, this time to the parking area for the Paint Pots. Here's an overview of this day's hiking: (Click on any image to enlarge.)

A trail through the woods takes you from the parking area
to a bridge over the Kootenay River.

It's an impressive span for a hiking trail, but then, the pots are a popular hike.

The view from the bridge is impressive.

The pots are formed by the accumulation of iron oxide around the outlets of cold mineral springs. Indigenous peoples used the ochre for paint, and settlers mined the ochre clay until the late 1920s. It will stain anything it touches, and the mushy route to the pots is built on it.

Here, Joan inspects the pots.

We continued our exploration on the Ochre Creek Trail, meeting several other groups of hikers along the way until its junction with the Tumbling Creek Trail. We took that trail and soon encountered a bridge over Ochre Creek.

On the far side we took a break.

Joan and I shared some cookies, and discovered some "hidden" maintenance equipment, including chainsaws, stashed in the brush. The sky was clouding up, so we decided this was a good point at which to turn around. The return over the bridge was as exciting as the going out:

Along the way, we encountered this three-toed woodpecker. It favors areas with lots of dead trees, and that's where we saw this one:

Darn well camouflaged!

Also, the ubiquitous fireweed.

A spotted longhorn beetle; they favor plants in the Apiaceae family for their pollen and nectar.

And here's a "pale beauty" butterfly!

There's a lot to see if you take the time to look.

 

At the junction with the Paint Pot trail, Joan and I kept left and explored the trail towards Marble Canyon for a while. (It was also a way to avoid slopping through the ochre clay of the Paint Pot trail again). Here, we again encountered fallen trees that required negotiation: shall I go around? Over? We reached the junction without mishap.

Having seen Marble Canyon two years before, Joan and I decided to return towards the Paint Pots. We were rewarded with a scenic riverside trail.

And recrossed the bridge to the parking area.

Then it was time to return to Storm Mountain Lodge for dinner and packing -- the next day, we'll slowly make our way, with several stops, back to Calgary and the airport hotel.