Yoho National Park was created in 1920 and covers 1,403 square kilometres (543 sq miles) and follows the Kootenay River down from the Continental Divide. This highway was the first gravel road through the Rockies, and was an early trekking route for “Tin Lizzies.”
This park straddles 105 kilometres of highway 93 from the Castle Junction (formerly Eisenhower Junction) (between Banff & Lake Louise) and heads southwest to Radium Hot Springs. The highway climbs over Vermillion Pass (coming east, you get great views of the heights around Castle Mountain as the highway descends inside Alberta), which at 1637 metres crosses the continental divide. As you drop into BC, the river at the side is the Vermillion River, which later flows into the Kootenay River.
The park has several herds of bighorn sheep as well as numbers of bear, moose, elk and mountain goat. They tend to migrate from their summer range in the north (east) part of the park, and head to the lower and drier areas in the south during the winter.
After the highway bends to head southeast, you are presented views of Mount Assiniboine, nestled in its own provincial park on the BC-Alberta border between Yoho National Park and Banff National Park. The highway climbs once more and descends into the Kootenay River valley and the Vermillion Crossing.
The 780 kilometre-long Kootenay River starts near Field, and flows south across the Idaho border, and then recrosses the Canada-US border 100 km to the west, flowing into Kootenay Lake .
Yoho National Park was created in 1920 and covers 1,403 square kilometres (543 sq miles) and follows the Kootenay River down from the Continental Divide. This highway was the first gravel road through the Rockies, and was an early trekking route for “Tin Lizzies.”