Waterton Lakes National Park

We had never heard of this park before and, yet, it has become one of our favorite places to camp-and, that’s saying a lot!  It is in Alberta, Canada but is adjacent to Glacier National Park in Montana.  Together, the two parks form Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.  It is a wonderful example of international cooperation in maintaining a special wilderness area, managing wildlife, combining interpretive programs and doing search and rescue operations.  It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995.

It was a beautiful drive in through the prairies into the mountains.  

Luckily, the campground we thought we’d stay at (Townsite-Jim wanted the WIFI they advertised) was full and we were directed to Lake Crandell up on the Red Rock Canyon road.  We loved it here and decided to stay for awhile.  

Look who greeted us when we arrived at our site!

We had all kinds of weather here, which was really exciting—hail storms, thundershowers, 100 km winds and both hot days and cool mornings.

Watching a storm move in

It started snowing in the mountains

The sun came out again but....

Soon, it started to rain again.

One brave windsurfer

We were battered by the winds

And holed up inside Maxine.  We even had
an escape plan, if she rolled over in the wind.

But, we survived-look at that horizontal rainbow.

And all was right with the world again.

The glaciers here have created such a beautiful setting of tooth-like horns, sharp-edged arêtes, steep sided valleys and gorgeous subalpine lakes.  The land here is sacred to the Blackfeet, Salish and Kootenai tribes.  It is easy to feel the vision that this park represents in the coming together of so many varied interested parties:  the natives, two countries, two provinces and a state.  It is a great example of how people can set aside their differences to work together for an important cause.  The wolf, the trumpeter swan, grizzly bear, lynx and the bull trout have experienced recovery here. 

We attended a program put on by a Blackfoot elder while we were here.  It was a fun night of stories about his ancestors and animal spirits.  We had a nice chat with him later about growing older and, hopefully, wiser.

The hikes here are phenomenal.  One of our favorites was right at the campground-Crandall Lake.

A beautiful path through the aspens and wildflowers

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My guy

My other guy

On our last day in Waterton, we decided to start with an early morning hike to Red Rock Canyon.  We had tried to hike it earlier but it was raining like crazy so we decided to do it on our way out.  We had seen pictures and just couldn’t believe the crazy red colors.  On a warmer day, it would be fun to sit in the bathtub like rocks with all that red rock surrounding us. 

We finished off the morning with another beautiful hike up to Blackiston Falls.  The mosquitos were fierce, so we didn’t stay long.  Jim had about 30 bites on his one arm.  I faired better because I was pretty well covered up.

We buzzed on up to Akamina Parkway and the infamous Cameron Lake but didn’t stay.  It is a beautiful drive and we saw a big old black bear wandering the road like he owned it, which of course he did. 

And a grizzly closer to town.

The highlight of the drive was me trying to make a U turn in the middle of a very narrow section of road.  Try to picture about 15-20 times of turning back and forth!  When I finally succeeded, sweating profusely and a little embarrassed, the woman in the backseat of the car, waiting to go the other way gave me the thumbs up and said, “Well done, Girl!”  Never again!

We just can't say enough about the beauty of this area: