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About Us




















Company Description

Kootenay Wilderness Tours is a cross-cultural, wilderness adventure and education organization, specializing in hiking, cross-cultural learning, and nature awareness eco-tours that provide guests with not only an amazing opportunity to encounter nature, but also an incredible experience learning from it. Guests will learn to identify common plants and tracks, taste some of the delicious vegetation, learn some wilderness skills, participate in traditional aboriginal teachings activities, or even take part in a powerful native ceremony with a native elder. We work on secluded trails and areas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, as well as in some national parks, and every trip offers spectacular views. Many of our activity packages consist only of hiking, while others intermix, in various combinations, standard outdoor activities, such as hiking, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, canoeing, and backpacking. All packages contain an element of unique nature awareness and cross-cultural learning activities, wilderness skills and crafts, and/or inter-cultural sharing opportunities.

These engaging, cooperative, and discovery-based programs are based out of the remote mountain retreat, CrossRiver Wilderness Centre (CWC). It is located in the backcountry of the Rocky Mountains south of Banff and Lake Louise, just north of Invermere and Radium Hot Springs. We cater to individuals and small groups, offering safe, unique, and enjoyable wilderness experiences in all-inclusive, value packages. Meals, accommodations, activity costs, certified guides, group gear, and transportation while at CWC are all included in our prices. Half-week and full-week tours, lodge and tipi accommodations, are all available.

Mission Statement

Kootenay Wilderness Tours is committed to providing guests with ecologically-sensitive wilderness adventures through fun, learning, and exploring, within a heightened connection to the natural world. With a foundation in cross-cultural and First Nations teachings, we aim to connect people of all ages to the wilderness, and role model a philosophy of respect for the earth and all its inhabitants. This will challenge, inspire, and empower guests to discover their place in nature, and the world around, in ways that can continue to influence them and their communities well after their return home.

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Regional Facts and History

  • Kootenay National Park is one of Canada's youngest national parks, and as a result one of the most rugged and undeveloped

  • The Kootenay River runs through Kootenay National Park and was the traditional wintering grounds of the formidable Ktunaxa people (the Kootenay First Nation tribe)

  • The Kootenay River valley was the route of the first ever recorded journey for pleasure through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, by Sir George Simpson, Scottish explorer and Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1841

  • The Cross River drains into the Kootenay and was also often used by the Ktunaxa people as a sheltered wintering grounds. There are currently proposals in to do archeological field work along the Cross River to begin discovering more about its rich history

  • Lt. James Warre crossed over the Canadian Rocky Mountains via White Man Pass and the Cross River, in 1845, with supplies to stake Canada's and the British government's claim for what is now the state of Oregon in the United States.

  • The Belgian black robe missionary, Father de Smet, traveled across the Canadian Rocky Mountains via the Cross River and White Man Pass on a peace mission in 1845, to stop the continual warring between the Ktunaxa and the Blackfoot people

  • One of Canada's most famous explorers, David Thompson, established the first trade route across the "impassible" Canadian Rocky Mountains in 1807, founding "Kootenae House" just off the Kootenay River on Ktunaxa (Kootenay) territory in the Columbia River valley

  • The mighty Columbia River runs through the Rocky Mountain Trench - separating the Rocky Mountains from the Purcells in Canada - all the way to the Pacific ocean

  • The Columbia River valley's biodiversity is reflected in its bird species - almost one-third of all the species in the province of British Columbia are represented here

  • The Rocky Mountain Trench is one of the largest natural phenomena in the world, and is one of the only natural phenomena that can be viewed from space


    • Related Quotations

  • "The scenery through which we passed onwards was grand beyond description, but oh how desolate! Mountains upon mountains raised their naked heads high above the mists which rolled upwards from the valleys below."
    - LT. JAMES WARRE, upon reaching the top of White Man Pass and overlooking the Cross and Kootenay River valleys in 1845


  • "colossal walls…with the most beautiful scenery in nature spread out [before us]…all was wild sublimity."
    - FATHER DE SMET, upon traveling through the Cross River Valley on a peace mission to the Blackfoot tribe in 1845


  • "At length the Rocky Mountains came in sight like shining white clouds in the horizon… but as we proceeded they rose in height, their immense masses of snow appeared above the clouds and formed an impassible barrier, even to the eagle."
    - DAVID THOMPSON, in awe upon seeing the Canadian Rocky Mountains for the first time in 1787, 20 years before discovering the first trade route across them that established Kootenae House on Kootenay territory


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    Environmental Responsibility Policy

    We are committed to the preservation and conservation of our wilderness in everything we do. All of our out trips, on the water or on the mountains, are conducted in low-impact ways, and everything is left as it was when we got there, or better. We never use the same base camp twice within seven years, and where there is a trail, we follow it, so as not to scar another. Often there is no trail where we go, and our certified guides teach and role-model new perspectives on walking and nature awareness when applicable.

    Wildlife is also respected as family members, and guests are informed in what to do during an encounter so it is enjoyable, and with minimal stress, for everyone. During our nature awareness activities and lessons, we may use a plant from the earth, or wood from a tree, but it is always done with permission, ceremony, and thanks, and it is used responsibly in a meal, or educational skills project, so its life was not wasted.

    Our main lodge facility at CrossRiver Wilderness Centre is fully self-sufficient, being powered by solar and hydro energy, and all of our rubbish is hauled off-site every week. Our water supply is natural, untreated, spring water from the mountain side, which is well-away from our gravel field bed. Our guest lodgings are themselves recycled and redecorated settler cabins from the turn of the 20th century. The trees and surroundings at CrossRiver Wilderness Centre are as they were when we arrived, and as landowners, as well as conservationists, we have been able to stop all hunting and logging in our immediate area. We have also been involved with a local environmental initiative to save a nearby and delicate sub-alpine pass from being turned into a ski hill, so we, and the wildlife, can continue to enjoy it responsibly. Much of our programs are devoted to minimising the negative impact of peoples’ use of natural resources, through raising public awareness on conservation issues, and role-modelling respect for the earth, who gives us so much unconditionally everyday.

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    Economic Responsibility Policy

    Most of our food is purchased at local businesses, and the basic supplies for the running and maintenance of our mountain retreat are purchased or contracted out, when necessary, to local companies in the district.

    We support other local small businesses as well with binders in each of our guest lodges containing helpful brochures to nearby restaurants, shops, and tourist attractions, in case guests choose to venture back out of the wilderness for a night during some free time. Furthermore, all of our certified guided river rafting and canoeing trips are contracted out to the local river guiding company.

    We are proud to support the First Nations peoples nearby as well with contracts for all our tipi poles for our First Nations village on site, and we are underway with plans for hiring out to them as well for all of our future wild and organic meats for our all-natural, home-cooked meals. Plans are also underway to offer financial support to local reserves and community-based programs through charities and volunteer work, to give something back to them for their long, hard work throughout history protecting the land we are now sharing and protecting.

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    Social Responsibility Policy

    Before beginning any new activity or tour, we aim to continually inform our staff, suppliers, travellers and ourselves of particular procedures to increase the positive social and environmental impact of our programs through direct communication in the field, newsletters, positive example, and research. Furthermore, many of our activities aim to help create an open and respectful line of communication between the local First Nations tribes and all our guests during their time with us, enabling any differences to become points of learning, and not points of judgement. We do our work mainly on traditional Ktunaxa (or Kootenay First Nation) land, and honour them with prayers and blessings frequently. We are also now beginning to develop relationships with some Ktunaxa people from their nearby tribal reserve, so non-native and native paths can learn to run more smoothly together.

    Creating situations for positive social and environmental impact, thereby decreasing negative impacts, is core to our nature awareness learning activities altogether. We introduce various aspects of relevant topics, on many different levels, through our wilderness skills sessions, natural-healing medicine lodge, interpretive nature walks and hikes, and the inter-cultural sharing opportunities, all within our programs.

    We also lend out our mountain retreat by donation only, to help local community-based groups offer international cross-cultural and indigenous teaching programs and leadership training courses for local youth. The youth leaders utilize our facility to come together with their youth participants and help them mentally prepare before they depart on their journeys of discovery with other cultures around the world.

    Furthermore, we are currently developing plans to subsidize youth programs of our own for personal and social development and healing sessions at our mountain retreat in nature.

    Everybody, and all cultures, are respected for the gifts they each bring to our circle, even if it is silence. And all of our guests are welcomed to, included in, and encouraged to ask questions about everything we do during their experience with us or otherwise. Ultimately, through our discovery-based, cooperative, and engaging wilderness activities, we aim to reconnect people with the natural world, other cultures, and themselves, in a way that leaves them with more than just a temporary experience in a distant land, but some very real insights into, and experiences of, an enriching way of life that could also influence them in their communities well beyond their return home.

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