Kootenay National Park
Kootenay National Park | |
---|---|
Location of Kootenay National Park in Canada Location of Kootenay National Park in British Columbia | |
Location | East Kootenay, British Columbia, Canada |
Coordinates | 50°52′59″N 116°02′57″W / 50.88306°N 116.04917°W |
Area | 1,406 km2 (543 sq mi) |
Established | 21 April 1920 |
Governing body | Parks Canada |
Website | parks |
Part of | Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks |
Criteria | Natural: (vii), (viii) |
Reference | 304 |
Inscription | 1984 (8th Session) |
Kootenay National Park is a
Initially called "Kootenay Dominion Park", the park was created in 1920 as part of an agreement between the province of British Columbia and the Canadian federal government to build a highway in exchange for
Kootenay National Park is one of seven contiguous national and provincial parks that form the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. The Continental Divide is the boundary between Kootenay and Banff National Park, as well as the British Columbia–Alberta provincial border. To the northwest, the watershed boundary between the Vermilion River and the Kicking Horse River serves as the boundary between Kootenay and Yoho National Park. Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park also borders Kootenay; Jasper National Park, Mount Robson Provincial Park and Hamber Provincial Park make up the remainder of the World Heritage Site but do not share a boundary with Kootenay National Park.
History
Archaeological evidence suggests humans have been either traveling through, or temporarily residing in, the area for about 10,000 years.
European fur traders and trappers passed through, as did
In May 1916 the
Attractions
The main attractions of the park include
The park's northeastern entrance, connects to Castle Junction in Banff National Park and the Trans-Canada Highway via Vermilion Pass, a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border, at an elevation of 1,651 metres (5,416').
Radium Hot Springs
Development of the hot springs began in earnest after a British medical journal suggested, and a 1914 chemical analysis by McGill University confirmed, the presence of radium within the water. Roland Stuart, who had acquired the springs through a 160 acres (0.65 km2) Crown grant, purchased 455 additional acres (1.84 km2) in the vicinity of the springs as the area became accessible by the Kootenay Central Railway. Stuart travelled to England promoting the "Kootenay Radium Natural Springs Limited" and recruited the paralysed St John Harmsworth to visit. After a four-month stay he invested enough to build a bathing pool with a store and a caretaker's cottage. With the park becoming a reality, the Dominion government offered, in 1921, Stuart $20,000 for control of the springs. With his agent unable to reach him, or Stuart ignoring the offer, the government expropriated the land, in 1922, with a settlement, after numerous hearings right up to the Supreme Court, of $40,000 in 1927. In that same year, a new two-storey bath-house was erected and the pool lengthened by 30 feet (9.1 m). Meanwhile, the town of Radium Hot Springs was being developed after the 1923 subdivision to create commercial properties and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company developed cabins the area that would later become the Radium Hot Springs Lodge. The facility was re-built after a fire in 1948 at the cost of $1,000,000 with a concrete pool and other facilities. Major renovations and improvements between 1960 and 1968 added additional capacity, a restaurant, and a campground (at the Redstreak Campground), as well as buying out the CPR cabin properties. Another round of renovations occurred in 1997 with a new hot-cold plunge pool added.[5]
Paint Pots
The Paint Pots are an acidic, cold water, mineral spring system from which
Because of the relatively small width of the park (five miles on each side of the highway), many of the park's attractions are situated near the road and are wheelchair accessible. A number of forest fires in the northern half of the park in the Simpson River, Vermilion Pass, and Floe Creek areas in 2003 and 2004 have left significant burn areas readily visible from the highway. Numa Falls is a short drive south of Marble Canyon and is accessible directly by Highway 93 which cuts through the park.
Hiking and camping
The Rockwall trail is a multi-day hike along the limestone cliff eastern escarpment of the Vermilion Range that continues into the
Day hikes with nearby campgrounds include trails on Redstreak Mountain and along Redstreak Creek, the Dog Lake trail from the McLeod Meadows campground, and the Marble Canyon to Paint Pots trail from the Marble Canyon campground. Other dayhikes, of various difficulty levels, include trails to Olive Lake, to Cobb Lake, the Kindersley/Sinclair loop, the Tokumun Creek trail from Marble Canyon to Kaufmann Lake, the Kimpton Creek trail, the Hector Gorge trail, the Verendrye Creek from the Vermilion Crossing, and the Stanley Creek trail. The Dolly Varden trail along the Dolly Varden Creek (the fish was later identified as bull trout, not Dolly Varden trout) permits cycling and has a campground open when the McLeod Meadows campground closes (e.g. available for winter camping).[7]
Geography
The park is centered around the 94 km stretch of the Highway 93, from Radium Hot Springs to the provincial border at the Vermilion Pass. The park's size and shape are the result of the federal-provincial agreement to get the road constructed. Consequently, despite the northwest–southeast trending range and valley systems, the park cuts through several mountain ranges and river valleys.
The park's southwestern entrance, near Radium Hot Springs and the Sinclair Canyon, is the only part of the park within
There are only a few, small lakes in the park, most of which occur in the Vermilion River drainage basin and occur at high altitude in
Geology
The geology of the park is dominated by mountains made up of exposed faulted sedimentary rock and valleys containing glacial till deposited in the Pleistocene.
Just outside the northwestern corner of the park, there is an igneous intrusion known as the Ice River Complex containing deposits of sodalite, an ornamental stone. The hills immediately around the hot springs are composed mainly of tufa, a calcium carbonate deposit that forms by precipitation of supersaturated hot spring water when it reaches cooler surface water.
The rocks in southwestern corner of the park are part of the older Purcell Mountains range while the eastern park mountains are part of the younger Rocky Mountains range.
The park has many Cambrian strata of oceanic sedimentary origin that shed insight into the explosive radiation of multicellular life on Earth. In the summer of 2012 a team of scientists from the Royal Ontario Museum, Pomona College, the University of Toronto, the University of Saskatchewan and Uppsala University discovered a Lagerstätte site above Marble Canyon of extraordinary preservation in shale, comparable to the Burgess Shale's phyllopod bed of fossils[9] only 42 kilometres (26 mi) distant, in Yoho National Park.[10] One species Kootenichela discovered in these rocks has been scientifically described: more than 50 new species were discovered in the Marble Canyon area in just two weeks of intensive exploration. The new assemblage of organisms, dating to the Wuliuan, such as the Surusicaris elegans,[11] is described as rich in basal arthropods and remarkable for the density and diversity of its soft-bodied organisms, some preserved in previously unreported detail.[12]
Climate
The park experiences a humid continental climate (Dfb) which is characterized by brief, cool summers and long snowy winters, but is generally drier than the areas to the west due to the Kootenay Ranges capturing moisture. Similarly, the park's mountain ranges intercept moisture that would otherwise fall on the other side of the Continental Divide, making the Banff National Park drier. Combined with the Continental Divide protecting it from the brunt of the arctic air flow, the park experiences a more mild climate than Banff.[13]
Based on the climate and geography, the park has been divided into different ecoregions: Montane, Subalpine and Alpine, which consequently affect vegetation and wildlife. The Montane ecoregions are at lower elevations, such as at the park's west gate and the valley of the Kootenay River, and experience between 300 and 600 mm of precipitation each year, 30 to 45% of which falls as snow. The subalpine ecoregion, such as the valley of the Vermilion River and at Floe Lake and Marble Canyon, experience cooler and moister weather, with mean annual temperatures less than 1 degrees Celsius and about 800 mm of precipitation, over half of which is snow. The alpine ecoregion, at the park's highest elevations, is even colder and snowier, which results in a lack of forest cover.[13]
Climate data for Kootenay NP West Gate (elevation 935m) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 9.5 (49.1) |
9.5 (49.1) |
22.0 (71.6) |
29.4 (84.9) |
33.5 (92.3) |
34.0 (93.2) |
37.0 (98.6) |
37.5 (99.5) |
34.5 (94.1) |
24.0 (75.2) |
16.7 (62.1) |
10.0 (50.0) |
37.5 (99.5) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −3.9 (25.0) |
0.0 (32.0) |
6.9 (44.4) |
13.3 (55.9) |
18.4 (65.1) |
22.0 (71.6) |
25.6 (78.1) |
25.2 (77.4) |
18.5 (65.3) |
9.9 (49.8) |
0.9 (33.6) |
−4.7 (23.5) |
11.0 (51.8) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | −6.8 (19.8) |
−4.2 (24.4) |
1.7 (35.1) |
7.0 (44.6) |
11.8 (53.2) |
15.5 (59.9) |
18.4 (65.1) |
17.8 (64.0) |
12.0 (53.6) |
5.1 (41.2) |
−1.9 (28.6) |
−7.3 (18.9) |
5.8 (42.4) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −9.7 (14.5) |
−8.3 (17.1) |
−3.5 (25.7) |
0.7 (33.3) |
5.1 (41.2) |
8.9 (48.0) |
11.2 (52.2) |
10.2 (50.4) |
5.4 (41.7) |
0.3 (32.5) |
−4.7 (23.5) |
−9.7 (14.5) |
0.5 (32.9) |
Record low °C (°F) | −35.6 (−32.1) |
−35 (−31) |
−23 (−9) |
−13.3 (8.1) |
−4.5 (23.9) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
3.0 (37.4) |
2.0 (35.6) |
−5.5 (22.1) |
−15.6 (3.9) |
−30.5 (−22.9) |
−37.8 (−36.0) |
−37.8 (−36.0) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 33.2 (1.31) |
19.4 (0.76) |
19.9 (0.78) |
31.2 (1.23) |
47.0 (1.85) |
69.0 (2.72) |
53.6 (2.11) |
40.7 (1.60) |
35.0 (1.38) |
26.2 (1.03) |
35.9 (1.41) |
30.1 (1.19) |
441.2 (17.37) |
Average snowfall cm (inches) | 27.2 (10.7) |
13.6 (5.4) |
7.7 (3.0) |
4.3 (1.7) |
1.1 (0.4) |
0.1 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
1.7 (0.7) |
17.9 (7.0) |
25.5 (10.0) |
99.1 (38.9) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.2 mm) | 11.6 | 7.0 | 8.5 | 9.9 | 13.6 | 16.1 | 12.9 | 11.4 | 9.6 | 11.2 | 11.1 | 10.5 | 133.4 |
Average snowy days (≥ 0.2 cm) | 9.9 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 6.0 | 9.2 | 35.5 |
Source: Environment Canada[14]
|
Climate data for Kootenay Crossing, BC (1981-2010):1170m | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 10.0 (50.0) |
11.1 (52.0) |
18.0 (64.4) |
28.3 (82.9) |
33.0 (91.4) |
32.5 (90.5) |
35.0 (95.0) |
36.5 (97.7) |
33.3 (91.9) |
23.5 (74.3) |
14.4 (57.9) |
6.7 (44.1) |
36.5 (97.7) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −4.8 (23.4) |
−0.4 (31.3) |
5.9 (42.6) |
10.9 (51.6) |
16.4 (61.5) |
19.7 (67.5) |
23.2 (73.8) |
23.0 (73.4) |
17.6 (63.7) |
8.9 (48.0) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
−6.6 (20.1) |
9.5 (49.0) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | −9.7 (14.5) |
−6.9 (19.6) |
−1.0 (30.2) |
3.8 (38.8) |
8.4 (47.1) |
11.8 (53.2) |
14.5 (58.1) |
13.8 (56.8) |
8.9 (48.0) |
2.6 (36.7) |
−4.5 (23.9) |
−10.9 (12.4) |
2.6 (36.6) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −14.3 (6.3) |
−13.1 (8.4) |
−7.8 (18.0) |
−3.3 (26.1) |
0.3 (32.5) |
3.9 (39.0) |
5.8 (42.4) |
4.6 (40.3) |
0.2 (32.4) |
−3.7 (25.3) |
−8.7 (16.3) |
−15.1 (4.8) |
−4.3 (24.3) |
Record low °C (°F) | −42.8 (−45.0) |
−39.0 (−38.2) |
−34.4 (−29.9) |
−22.2 (−8.0) |
−10.0 (14.0) |
−5.6 (21.9) |
−6.5 (20.3) |
−4.5 (23.9) |
−10.0 (14.0) |
−22.5 (−8.5) |
−38.0 (−36.4) |
−42.8 (−45.0) |
−42.8 (−45.0) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 39.5 (1.56) |
20.7 (0.81) |
23.0 (0.91) |
34.6 (1.36) |
55.8 (2.20) |
74.4 (2.93) |
63.1 (2.48) |
52.5 (2.07) |
43.3 (1.70) |
35.8 (1.41) |
40.3 (1.59) |
38.5 (1.52) |
521.5 (20.54) |
Average snowfall cm (inches) | 36.8 (14.5) |
19.0 (7.5) |
16.4 (6.5) |
10.9 (4.3) |
2.1 (0.8) |
0.3 (0.1) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.6 (0.2) |
6.9 (2.7) |
29.1 (11.5) |
37.2 (14.6) |
159.3 (62.7) |
Source: Environment Canada[15]
|
Ecology
Flora
The Montane Spruce biogeoclimatic zone of the park's lower elevations contain forests of mostly
Fauna
A wildlife survey found 242 species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. The largest species are the ungulates, such as the
World Heritage Site
In 1984, UNESCO added the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site, to the World Heritage List. This World Heritage Site included the four contiguous national parks: Kootenay, Banff, Jasper and Yoho. At the time, the site was deemed to meet the natural criteria for examples of geological processes, record of life, and for exceptional natural beauty. In 1990, the Mount Assiniboine, Mount Robson and Hamber Provincial Parks were added to the World Heritage Site, bringing its total area up to 22,991 km2 (8,877 sq mi). Under their Statement of Significance, UNESCO states "With rugged mountain peaks, icefields and glaciers, alpine meadows, lakes, waterfalls, extensive karst cave systems and deeply incised canyons, the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks possess exceptional natural beauty, attracting millions of visitors annually."[20]
See also
- National Parks of Canada
- List of National Parks of Canada
References
- ^ "Protected Planet | Kootenay National Park Of Canada". Protected Planet. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
- ^ Parks Canada Agency, Government of Canada (2020-03-11). "Park Chronology - Kootenay National Park". www.pc.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
- ^ "Kootenay National Park | The Canadian Encyclopedia". thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
- ^ Lothian, W.F. (1976). A History of Canada's National Parks. Vol. I. Parks Canada. pp. 58–61.
- ISBN 0921102747.
- .
- ^ ISBN 0921102747.
- ^ B.D. Walker, D.T . Allan and W.S. Taylor (1984). Ecological Land Classification of Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Vol. I: Integrated Resource Description. University of Alberta. pp. 1–6.
- PMID 24513643.
- ^ Schmidt, Colleen (11 February 2014). "Scientists unearth epic fossil find in Kootenay National Park". Calgary, Alberta: CTV News. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- PMID 26038846.
- ^ Anthony, Leslie (February 2017). "Shale Game". Canadian Geographic. 137 (1): 50–55.
- ^ a b B.D. Walker and P.L. Achuff (1984). "Climate". Ecological Land Classification of Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Vol. I: Integrated Resource Description. University of Alberta. pp. 6–11.
- ^ "Kootenay NP West Gate, BC". Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010 (in English and French). Environment Canada. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "Kootenay Crossing, BC". Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010 (in English and French). Environment Canada. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ P.L. Achuff and H.A. Dudynsky (1984). "Vegetation". Ecological Land Classification of Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Vol. I: Integrated Resource Description. University of Alberta. pp. 43–132.
- ^ Derworiz, Colette (2 August 2013). "2003 fires lead to positive environmental changes:Kootenay blazes wreaked havoc 10 years ago". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
- S2CID 130124047.
- ^ D.M. Poll and M.M. Porter (1984). "Wildlife". Ecological Land Classification of Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Vol. I: Integrated Resource Description. University of Alberta. pp. 133–158, 323–327.
- ^ "Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
External links
- Official website
- Kootenay National Park travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Geology of the Rocky mountains including Kootenay area Archived 2021-02-12 at the Wayback Machine