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| Overlooking Upper Waterton Lake - wildfire smoke puts the mountains in silhouette |
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| Mountains rise abruptly out of the prairie |
Oh we love Waterton Lakes National Park! What’s not to love? Dramatic Rocky Mountains sculpted by
glaciers; clear, cold lakes (some big and some tiny); scenic hikes; canoeing
and kayaking; beautiful vistas; dog friendly trails and lakes; generous,
welcoming people. The mountains of
Waterton Lakes rise abruptly out of the gently rolling Alberta prairies. There are no foothills. We camped in Crooked Creek Campground 3 miles
from the park, in the prairie. Across
the street from our campsite are fields of cattle and horses.
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| Upper Waterton Lake from the boat tour |
Waterton is the Canadian part of the Waterton-Glacier
International Peace Park. This was the
first International Peace Park. It was
originally sponsored by Rotarians on both sides of the border with the slogan,
“Nature Knows No Boundaries.” Pretty
cool! This small park (525 sq km) is
also a Unesco World Heritage site, and Unesco Biosphere Reserve.
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| Goat Haunt entrance to Glacier National Park |
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| The boundary between the US and Canada |
Glaciers shaped the mountains into steep walls along the
sides of deep, blue lakes. The largest
lake is Upper Waterton Lake. It extends
into the Glacier US National Park. On
our first day, we took the International Boat Tour down the lake, where we
disembarked for a brief while at the Goat Haunt entrance to Glacier Park. You can only get to this entrance from the
lake or by hiking 8 miles along Upper Waterton Lake. While on the boat, we passed the
international boundary between the two countries – a line of cleared forest.
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| A forest regenerates after fire of 2017. |
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| Burned tree trunks from 2017 fire. |
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Cameron Lake - The fire destroyed the trees on the upper part of the mountain, but spared the trees near the lakeshore
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In 2017, Waterton had a catastrophic wildfire sweep through
much of the park. As we have learned at
other parks, fire is an important part of forest regeneration. The burned tree trunks now stand among
rampant new growth and wildflowers. As
you look around at the sides of the mountains, some show rock formations usually
hidden by forest, with skeletal trees, while other sides are lush with green
forests untouched by fire.
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| Big Horn Sheep walking down the road. |
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| Historic Prince of Wales Hotel overlooks Upper Waterton Lake |
Our first morning in Waterton we drove into the Waterton
Townsite (location of stores, hotels, restaurants and private residences) in
the company of 3 Big Horn Sheep. They
were the extent of the wildlife we saw.
There was a car between us and the sheep, so most of my photos are of
their hind quarters…
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| Red Rock Canyon |
After our boat tour that first morning, we drove to Red Rock
Canyon, a canyon of deep red argillite, with a babbling stream bouncing through
the canyon. We visited on a Saturday,
and the canyon and stream were full of families laughing and walking in the
cooling waters of the stream deep inside the canyon. Most of these families were from nearby towns
who drove 1-3 hours to enjoy the park on a hot summer day. The canyon is very pretty. There is a paved loop path along both sides
of the canyon. Very scenic.
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| Schooner joined us on a hike and made many new friends. |
Waterton is dog friendly, so we took Schooner with us on our
second day in the park. We started the
morning with a 2-mile hike high above but along the Upper Waterton lakeshore. The views were breathtaking. We saw up close the regeneration of the
forest after the fire. We met probably
20 other dogs on the trail (all but 2 friendly) and probably about 100 people
who wanted to pet Schooner. Needless to
say, Schooner was in heaven.
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| Cameron Lake - the icefield above it was once a glacier, but it has melted away |
After the hike we drove to Cameron Lake. This impossibly beautiful little lake has
crystal blue water and is 193 feet deep at its deepest part. Visitors can bring their own canoes, kayaks,
SUPs, and floaty toys to the lake.
Again, we found many of the people we met were from nearby and visiting
the park for the day. There is a hiking
trail around the lake and families set up around the shoreline, some even
cooking their meals.
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| Schooner's very first canoe ride |
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| Brrrr - Russ goes swimming |
We rented a canoe and took Schooner out on her very first
canoe ride. She did super well and was
very calm throughout. It was lovely to
be bobbing around on the water again.
After the canoe ride, Russ took a swim in the lake. Cold but not impossible.
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| Look at the strata on this mountain! |
Unlike its wildly popular cousin to the South (Glacier),
Waterton has modest visitation. If you
can’t get an entry ticket into Glacier, or don’t even want to try, we recommend
Waterton Lakes as an alternative.
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| The moon at sunset from our campsite |
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