An easy 1.5km walk (45min return) from a Hwy-93 parking lot through damp, gloomy and mossy forest reveals the Paint Pots. These bright orange pools are the result of iron-rich spring waters bubbling through the clay sediments of an ancient glacial lake.

Their striking colour made them of great importance to many aboriginal tribes, particularly the local Stoney and Ktunaxa, who collected clay from the beds to bake and grind into ochre powder, which when added to animal fat made teepee or body paint.

This helped give the pools great spiritual significance, and native legends associated the spot with spirits. Signs warn you to respect this and stay on the trail – but this was not always so: in the 1920s there was large-scale mining here for paint production in Calgary.

Practical Info

Kootenay Hwy-93, British Columbia