Kootenay National Park on way to Canmore

We decided not to drive the Road to the Sun road a third time but to avoid it & Calgary and go the back road through Kootenay National Park. It is a beautiful drive. There was a big forest fire in 2003 but it was interesting to see how the forest rejuvenated itself.  We had learned yesterday about the long pole pines. Their seeds have to get to around 120 degrees in order to germinate so it takes a forest fire for that to happen. In addition, their seeds are black so birds don't see them. They are the first trees to grow after a fire. The pink flowers are called fire weed & are  first thing that comes alive after a fire. We saw mountainsides that were solid pink with the flowers.

 This was our view for our picnic lunch.

Nima Falls

Marble Canyon

Marble Canyon

This waterfall has been here for over 4000 years and has carved  gorge probably over 100 feet. It was warm but when we went through one section, the temperature droves probably 20 degrees!

 The bulbs from these purple/blue flowers were boiled and used as a sugar by the First Nations people.