It is no surprise that a fantastic scenic drive runs through the middle of Kootenay National Park. This park was created around the Banff-Windermere Highway, which, when it was completed in 1922, was the first motor road to cross the Canadian Rockies. The deal included the designation of 8 kilometres on each side of the highway for a park, and today the Banff-Windermere remains Kootenay’s backbone, providing access to hiking trails, campgrounds, and picnic areas.

The 93 kilometres drive passes through a remarkable diversity of habitats; Kootenay is the only national park in Canada in which you can see both cactuses and glaciers. Its semiarid south-western corner, where prickly pear cactus grows along with Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine, provides important winter range for wildlife, especially bighorn sheep.

If you have got strong legs, backcountry skills, several extra days, and a hankering to backpack through some of the most scenic wilderness in the Canadian Rockies, pull over just shy of kilometre 72, at the southern end of the Rockwall Trail.