Smokey east Kootenays and Kootenay National Park

Summer is fire season in Canada and depending on the wind, some smoke days are part of life.  We had been lucky in Osoyoos to arrive the devastating stressful Eaglebuff fire. It was still ongoing while we were in Osoyoos, but thanks to a favourable wind, we did not see any smoke. When the Eaglebuff fire broke out and part of Osoyoos had an evacuation order while we were still packing up for our vacation at home early August, my Canadian friends reacted rather calmly "oh I hope you don't get too much smoke". 

In July, we had seen in the news that New York was suffering from smoke from the Canadian forest fires in Quebec and also part of our grey weather in the 2nd half of July was thanks to the Canadian forest fires.  Smoke travels a long way and therefore is a part of each Canadian summer. I see on the social media of our friends regularly some posts on smoky days when breathing quality is at risk.  We had experienced once before during our stay in Jasper town in 2019,  that smoke travels thousands of kilometres far and can all of a sudden invade a valley and hide the mountains. 


And after two weeks of travelling through Canada in heatwaves and a heavy fire season, we could no longer escape. Our departure in Creston and travel through the east Kootenays was invaded by smoke. I first thought that it was due to the fires up behind Fisher Peak in Cranbrook and the 2-months ongoing fire near Saint Mary's in Kimberley and the out of control fire near Panorama resort which we'd pass at distance today, but I heard that also Creston and a much bigger part of BC was filled by smoke. 

"Oh nice camp fire" was the response of the children when we got out of the car and smelled the air. 
I was happy that we've been in the region so often, so it didn't feel too much like a loss of opportunity to miss out on part of the scenery. Instead, I realized we were experiencing some true Canadian summer experience. 

  

View on Fort Steele on the left with the smoke hidden Fisher peak on the right.

See the Fort Steele ferris wheel on the left from our past post

Fortunately the Hoodoo rocks near Fairmont Hot Springs were visible as they were not too far to spot. 

However Columbia Lake, the source of the major river Columbia that we had already crossed and would cross another few times this vacation was.... invisible in the smoke. 

The only active fire that we could clearly spot this vacation was near Edgewater, BC across the valley. 

We stopped at Radium Hot Springs to explore the Kootenay National Park visitor center.  We studied well the wildlife we wanted to spot because Radium is well-known for its flock of mountain sheep near the highway. 

Even though we had not planned to visit Kootenay National Park this vacation, we turned off anyhow and drove off through the canyon towards the Kootenay Valley lookout in the park 20kms further just to have a feeling of the Park anyhow. And I was wondering whether the smoke had just filled this north-south valley or more. If we'd cross just some Rockies and reach the next north-south valley in which we'd meet the Kootenay River again, maybe we'd get a clear sky.   20 km up and down is nothing in Canada so off we went. 

The wildlife was present at the appointment, casually grazing at the edge of town.  And the canyon was cool as always. 

And then we reached the Kootenay Valley viewpoint to see....grey. No magnificent mountain range to view.  Incredible how a view can simply disappear. The smoke was everywhere.  (scroll to the bottom of this post to compare) .  So we returned back on our route and returned to Radium Hot springs through the canyon to continue our drive int he Kootenays to our next hotel.   Despite the smoke, we found also beauty in the "foggy" view on some mountains.  I love the last picture.  Smoke can work as some mysterious fog effect in some light.