Glacier-Waterton Park: Waterton Lakes
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2007
1
48
55
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
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Waterton Lakes National Park,
Alberta,
Canada
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Waterton Lakes, Canada
If you head north from St. Marys, the road leaves to the Chief Mountain International Highway-a scenic drive that leads to the Canadian entrance of the park. Waterton Lakes-the Canadian side of the international park-is beautiful and different from the US side of the park. Deer are everywhere in the town, grazing on yards and school grounds. There are a couple of scenic drives through the mountains, and a lot of glacial lakes to visit and hike around. Along the way you can see the first oil well in Canada, and the historic Prince of Whales Hotel, which looms above upper Waterton Lake on a huge rocky outcropping, as well as some incredible scenery. Prices to stay in this hotel range from a few hundred dollars a night to a few thousand. The lake is There is a hike in Glacier-Kootenai Lake-that you can only get to by backcountry or by ferry from the Waterton Marina in Canada. One of the days we were in Waterton, we took the hour-long ferry ride and the ranger guided hike. Everyone told us that seeing moose is pretty much guaranteed on this hike. We weren't disappointed! There was a big bull moose standing right at the water's edge when we arrived at Kootenai Lakes. We got some great pictures. Well worth the hour and a half trudging in the rain.
The rain stayed with us on the way home from Canada. When we got back States' side, we moved to camp on the east side of Glacier. We had hoped to spend a few days hiking in the Two Medicine and Many Glacier areas, but, unfortunately, the weather turned cold and rainy. We waited a couple of days in hopes that it would clear, but with snow being predicted in the coming days, we cut out trip short and headed to South Dakota.
