Kootenay Lake

Ainsworth Hot Springs is about a nine-hour drive from Seattle, set into the side of a mountain facing Kootenay Lake.

If booked, vacation rentals like Arrow Lake Escapes and Kootenay Lake House are nearby options.

Continuing on your journey, you’ll follow the shores of Kootenay Lake to the little town of Kaslo, known as the “Switzerland of Canada.”

Nelson, a town of 11,000 people 140 miles southwest of Banff that rises from the shores of Kootenay Lake and into the evergreen foothills of the Selkirk Mountains, draws only 200,000 tourists annually.

The river has its origins in British Columbia, Canada, then dips into Montana before cutting northwest across the corner of Idaho’s Panhandle and back into Canada where it enters Kootenay Lake and eventually joins the Columbia River.