The Kootenay Valley
South of Radium Hot Springs (town) and following the course of the so-called Rocky Mountain Trench, lies the broad flat-bottomed Kootenay Valley,
It separates out the main spine of the Rockies to the east from a series of smaller, but still significant, western ranges and provides an obvious route south to the Elk Valley and the cross-country Hwy-3 corridor.
But there's more than just transiting to do here, and several places have established themselves as minor resorts. In the north the small town of Invermere guards a route into the mountains at the likeable Panorama ski, golf and biking resort.
Then further south there's a similar relationship between the likeable Bavarian-styled town town of Kimberley and Kimberley, the resort.