Photo by Hontanar, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
🇨🇦 Canada · Kootenay Lake, British Columbia
Photo by Hontanar, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
🇨🇦 Canada · Kootenay Lake, British Columbia
♨ Temperature
42°C
⛰ Altitude
535 m
⚗ pH
7.8
💧 TDS
1240 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
25 L/s
📅 Established
Used by Ktunaxa Nation for centuries; resort development 1890s
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Ainsworth Hot Springs occupies a striking geological feature on the western shore of Kootenay Lake in British Columbia's Selkirk Mountains: a horseshoe-shaped cave carved by centuries of geothermal flow, where visitors wade through a natural mineral-water tunnel at 42°C before emerging into cliffside outdoor pools. The water is moderately mineralized with calcium, sulphate, and bicarbonate, and carries a faint sulphurous quality characteristic of the region's geological fault systems. The Ktunaxa Nation knew this spring as a place of healing and used it for centuries before European settlement. Commercial development began in the 1890s during the mining boom that transformed this section of the Kootenays, and the site has operated as a public bathing resort ever since. The combination of the cave experience, cool-water plunge pool, and elevated open-air terrace with lake views makes this one of the most distinct hot spring settings in Western Canada.
| Calcium | 248 mg/L |
| Sulphate | 490 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 308 mg/L |
| Sodium | 38 mg/L |
| Magnesium | 28 mg/L |
| Silica | 18 mg/L |
The Ktunaxa Nation has maintained a relationship with the Kootenay Lake region for at least 10,000 years. The hot springs at Ainsworth appear in Ktunaxa oral tradition as a place associated with healing and spiritual renewal. The community was largely displaced during the 19th-century mining and settlement boom but continues to assert cultural connections to this landscape. Kootenay Lake itself is a Ktunaxa ancestral waterway.
The 1890s silver and lead mining era transformed Ainsworth from a Ktunaxa gathering place into a rowdy mining camp where thousands of prospectors poured into the Kootenays. The hot springs became an important amenity for miners seeking relief from underground labour — a social function the site retains, though the industry has been replaced by tourism. The cave pool remains one of the most distinctive bathing environments in British Columbia.
The spring flows entirely by gravity and geothermal pressure from the fault system beneath the Selkirk Mountains, requiring no artificial heating or pumping. Kootenay Lake is one of the largest natural lakes in Canada and the surrounding West Kootenay landscape is protected under provincial park designations.
Phone+1 250-229-4212
Websitewww.hotnaturally.com
Address3609 Highway 31, Ainsworth Hot Springs, BC V0G 1A0, Canada