Okay, not the greatest title, but do you know how hard it is to be funny all the time? It’s not easy! This blog post should be a bit shorter as we only spent about 24 hours in Waterton National Park.

If you aren’t caught up, this is Part 4 of my blog recaps of Louie and my recent 3 week trip out west.

• Part 1: What Happened to Scott?
• Part 2: This is my {Bison} Jam
• Part 3: There are still a few glaciers left…for now

Day 11, continued: So we left Glacier National Park and headed to Canada. Originally I hadn’t planned to visit Waterton as I didn’t even really know about it, but after I looked into things further, I decided it was close enough we should spend a night there. Waterton and Glacier National Parks are called an International Peace Park—they share a boundary, across the mountains. You can even hike across (it’s a long way, I think) or take a boat ride and get off and hike into the US from Canada…except this summer that option wasn’t available for various reasons so we didn’t consider it. We had just been in the US and while it would be cool to hike across, it wasn’t necessary.

Another kind of downside to visiting Waterton is that they had recently (two summers ago) had some really terrible fires and were still recovering—several of the scenic roads that go to various areas of the park were closed when we visited, and as a result many of the hikes we might have liked to do were not accessible. Nonetheless, I figured for one night we would still have plenty to do!

It’s only about 1 hour drive from St Mary (the east side of Glacier park) to Waterton, and it’s a lovely and scenic drive. It also cuts back through Glacier Park after you leave—so many of us only visit tiny parts of these parks and then you’ll realize there are huge swaths you didn’t get to because they aren’t as popular! We passed dozens of bikers going up a road, and we were glad we were driving uphill instead. Anyway, it didn’t take long to get to customs via the Chief Mountain Highway. It was no big deal getting into Canada—we had our passports, they asked us a few questions, mostly about firearms, and we had to roll down the windows into the backseat so the customs agent could look, and BOOM we were in Canada!

We bought an annual pass for the Canadian National Parks and then they let us into Waterton Park. They may share a border with Glacier Park, but you have to pay separately. We bought an annual pass because if you are visiting parks for more than 7 days it’s cheaper—rather than charging by the park but giving you a week to visit like in the US, Canada charges by the day but you could visit more than one park during that day and it wouldn’t cost extra (this seems crazy, but remember that Banff and Jasper National Parks border each other as well as two other NP in that area!).

We got into the town of Waterton (it’s a town within the National Park, which didn’t surprise me as I’d been to Canada before, but was different for Louie!) and even though we were early (noonish?) we decided to pop over to our campground to see if we could check in early. Success! We got our space and got our tent set up. It’s always more relaxing AFTER you set up the tent.

We stayed in the Townsite Campground, which the guidebook I was using did not think much of. I’ll be honest, I always take guidebook campground reviews with a grain of salt, because I’m not sure they are really campers. I love a campground with good views and good water access. This one had lovely facilities (including hot showers, what?), easy access to water (for drinking and washing dishes) and while the sites WERE a bit close together and there weren’t many trees, which means not much privacy, the views were pretty spectacular. In the front part of the campground people had practically lake front property. We were more towards the side and were along a little creek, with lovely views of the mountain. Privacy in a campground can be nice, but it’s not my only concern. Plus, you get kind of used to being in the open and learn to just pretend nobody else is around..and there’s also good people watching (in a subtle manner, of course) which can be nice after spending 11 days with only one other person!

You can see the bathhouse there in the background. There were also small shelters in which you could cook—I imagine if the weather were bad that would be really nice!

Anyway, after we set up the tent, we decided to go on a hike that was nearby to Bertha Lake. It was alternately described as “moderate” or “easy” but had quite a bit of elevation change, and was about 6 miles round trip…I think I bit off more than I could chew, especially because it was a hot and sunny day!

We had a little trouble finding the start of the trail, and ended up “offroading” a little bit, but we made it. The trail was BUSY, maybe because so many other areas in the park were closed. The views were gorgeous—Waterton was perhaps the most beautiful place we visited. The water, the mountains, the wildflowers, and yes, the burned trees…it all made for the most gorgeous views.

Shortly after Bertha Falls, I decided to turn around and Louie went ahead without me. The trail started getting much steeper, my legs were just really dead, and the heat was getting to me. I hate feeling like I gave up, but I felt much better going downhill (ha!) and it was nice getting back to the campsite, showering, and relaxing and reading a book for awhile while Louie explored on his own. He probably got back two hours later or more, and said not only did he make it to Bertha Lake, then he walked around the lake which added several more miles! I myself finished my book (I had been reading the Pillars of the Earth for two weeks) and enjoyed sitting outside in my chair in the lovely weather (not as hot out of the sun!).

We decided to get dinner in town, and went to place called the Taco Bar. Though they didn’t make their own margaritas, they sold margaritas in a can, and I enjoyed a nice bowl with rice, beans, and spinach. Louie ordered six tacos, and I’d thought he was just really hungry from all the hiking, but it turns out they were mini tacos and then he ordered a few more afterwards!

After dinner we walked around the town a bit and took some pictures by the lake. Then we headed back to the campground, and saw a few deer visit our site. No campfires were allowed, and it was starting to rain lightly, so we made it an early night.

Day 12: We weren’t in a big hurry in the morning, so we didn’t get up too early… though I think we ended up being ready for breakfast before 8 am, so it’s possible my concept of what’s early and what’s not is a little skewed. We had decided to get breakfast in town and walk around a bit more, and decided to eat at a place called Zum’s. I had a veggie omelet, and the place was okay. It had a gift shop and I got stuck in a conversation with the owner about how awful the National Parks Service was and how they were ruining Waterton and wanted to turn it into Banff, which was an atrocity…and I wanted to say, really, you are going on about how you wish Waterton were more like it used to be and you don’t want the crowds…and you are selling trashy tourist kitsch junk? I did not say that, nor did I say we were headed to Banff next! And honestly, this all came out of a conversation about THE WEATHER.

We walked along the water some more, and maybe we should have taken a boat ride too, like I’ve said before, there were so many times we could have rented a boat or gotten a tour and didn’t, but the breeze was cool and it was a lovely foggy morning.

You can see the Prince of Wales Hotel up on the bluff in that photo.

We went back to pack up our campsite, and before we left town for good, we wanted to stop by the Prince of Wales hotel (Note, I pronounce wales and whales differently but Louie does not.)

This would be a better picture without the white van, but I’m not a photo shop expert.

Here is the view of Waterton from the hotel—the little town is on the right side, and the mountains are amazing.

We were sad to leave, but we might try to return someday in the future when the parkways are open and we can further explore the area. And maybe stay in the hotel, or get one of the campsites closer to the water!

Our next destination was Banff, which was about a 5 hour drive away. We’d been navigating using a combination of Apple Maps and an old Garmin device, and on this drive we had a little fiasco. Apple maps told us to turn onto a road which turned into a long gravel road, and then more gravel, and we realized it was going to be 30 miles of gravel roads! We decided to turn around instead, and found our way back to the route Garmin was giving us instead. I realized in that moment that the map of Alberta I had wasn’t as detailed as I wished, and we had a few moments of panic (well, I did) before we realized, well, we can always just turn around and that will be fine. We wanted to take a scenic route to Banff, but not that scenic!

We stopped for lunch in Longview at the Little New York Bistro, which was a place I found online that had great reviews. Against possible better judgment but based on reviews I had a seafood wrap, which had lots of tomatoes as well and was pressed in a grill. After a lovely lunch we drove through a variety of Provincial Parks and saw an insane amount of wildlife: more bighorn sheep than we could count (several different groups), then a black bear on the side of the road, and then we saw two bears cross the road in front of us, we assume a mom and child. It was a wonderfully scenic road!

Bighorn sheep. You might guess those are goats, but the mountain goats are whiter and shaggier. Evidently the sheep are drawn to the roads because of the salt along them.

Don’t worry, Mom, this was from the car! And I zoomed in on my camera.

This bear was paying us no attention at all and just getting some snacks.

It was an amazing drive, honestly, and we passed through some really cool looking places and probably some excellent hikes, but we were on our way to Banff. We finally got there around 6 pm or so and headed directly to our campground, Tunnel Mountain 1. We had to wait in line a bit for check in, and some rangers came by to talk about bear safely. We determined it was similar to Yellowstone except you could have water in the tent to drink, and that the ranger told us that while she’d heard bears in the States break into cars, those in Canada haven’t learned to do that yet! So we didn’t need to worry about stuff in our cars at all, which for us was a big relief. Our site looked great and was kind of on the edge of the loop with a meadow behind it—I remarked that there might be some good wildlife sightings if we were lucky. And interesting thing for the park: you pay for a fire permit, but you can pick up as much firewood from a pile as you want!

I’ll leave off there. We spent the next 4 nights in Banff, which was a long time yet only a drop in the bucket and we feel like we hardly saw anything at all.