Because of the popularity of this park, we were up early and on the road by 6:30 a.m. The international road we traveled is called the Chief Mountain Highway, and we got a good view of Chief Mountain in the distance as we drove by.
The international line on the other side of the lake was flatter and easier to maintain. We watched as a ranger-led group of hikers were stopped at the wooden dock in the picture below. The people are too small to see, but we watched as the ranger was dipping her water container into the lake to refill it for the hike back. The guy doing commentary on our boat ride said that all the locals drink water directly from the streams and lakes in this area. We knew they looked perfectly clear, but it looks like they are also perfectly clean.
It was fun to watch as the layers of blue mountains before us unfolded as we headed south.
Our boat docked on the south end of the lake, and we had about thirty minutes to explore before the boat headed back to Canada. For hikers wanting to hike on the U.S. trails past this point, there was a customs office set up in the forest. Passports would be required to hike into the wilderness area of Glacier National Park from this point.
We were taking the boat back, so we only had enough time for a few pictures on the pier looking north towards Canada.
Denisa is glad to have a plant-loving female along on this trip, as she and Patti notice the same unique plants along the trail. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like these interesting light blue berries with leaves that were turning red.
We were the last passengers back on the boat, so we lost our top deck seats. But we did manage to get the front row views by standing in the bow of the ship. We could see the snow still on the tops of the mountains around us. But we learned that these are snow fields--not glaciers. By definition, a glacier has to be a certain size and thickness, and moves on the mountain side. On the Canada side of the park, there are no glaciers.
As we pulled back into the north edge of the lake, we could see the grand Prince of Wales Lodge on the the right hand side of the picture, dwarfed by the towering Mount Crandell at 2356 meters--(thinking like a local again).
After the boat ride, we had some dinner in Waterton. We had noticed that our cell phones had no signal is this remote little town. Right in the middle of town, we saw an icon from the past--a working telephone booth.
We drove the only other road inside Waterton Lakes National Park. After 16 kilometers, the Akamina Parkway ended at Cameron Lake, where a red bear and her cub greeted us. We can now say that we spotted a Canadian bear in the national park.
We hiked the trail around Cameron Lake, hoping to make it to the foot of that majestic mountain that is actually in the United States. But a stop sign at the middle of the lakeshore trail made it clear that hikers weren't allowed any further. This tall brushy area along the lake is prime bear territory where hikers were not allowed. Do we believe in fairy tales like grizzly bears? In respect for Patti's safety, we convinced Mark that this wasn't a good time for his usual bush-whacking techniques.
Along this trail, we found some delicate white flowers, that looked like snowflakes in the middle of August.
Lake Cameron was a beautiful place to finish our time in Canada. We thought about making the drive back up to Red Rock Canyon, in search of those elusive bears. But we have many kilometers to drive before we get home, and it is already 6 p.m.
Remembering those black cows on the road, we were trying to get home before it got dark. There was a moment at the international border crossing that we thought we might get detained and not allowed back into the United States. Our passports say we are from Oklahoma, but our car is tagged in Texas. When Mark explained that we live in a motor home, we were afraid that the U.S. customs official might not let homeless people back into the country.
A few miles outside of East Glacier, we stopped for this sunset spread over that big Montana sky. It was a good day to visit Canada, but it's good to be back home in the United States!
We still can't get used to the idea of highways with 70 mile-per-hour speed limits with open range cattle. We saw herds of cattle all along the road as we made our way towards the international border. This looks like a precarious road to travel in the dark with so many black angus cattle in the road.
It was an easy trip through customs, and we were greeted into Canada by a group of elk crossing the road. We first saw the mothers, each with a single calf.
Then the big buck brought up the rear of the group. We could see the velvet was dangling off his antlers in the early morning light.
Even with our long drive, we were inside the national park by 9:30. This is the Canadian National Park's 150th birthday, and they are celebrating by offering free park passes to all their visitors. We had ordered our Canadian park pass a month ago, when we were planning a trip to multiple parks with Denisa's Mother.
We drove about 15 kilometers (since we are in a foreign country, we are trying to think like the locals) down the Red Rock Parkway. Not surprisingly, our destination was Red Rock Canyon at the end of that road.
That led us to the trail towards Blakiston Falls. It looks like Canada has spent a lot of money sprucing up their national parks for this anniversary celebration. We noticed that the walkways to the viewpoints at the falls looked brand new. Denisa and Patti are standing with arms raised on their platform while Mark is taking the picture from another.
We looped back for more views of the red rocks. We had heard that this was a great place to see bears, but they were hiding from us this morning.
We headed back to the cute little town of Waterton, and its crown jewel--Prince of Wales Lodge.
Another of the fine old lodges built in the early 1900's, they offer high tea in the dining room. But the $32 price tag per person seemed a little excessive for tea and finger sandwiches--especially since Mark doesn't even like tea. So we just enjoyed the views out the wall of windows in the lobby instead.
That view is down Upper Waterton Lake, rimmed with mountains. That's where we are headed next.
But first we need to eat a quick lunch. We asked the girl at the lodge for the quintessential Canadian food that we must experience before we left the country. She thought for a moment, and the best idea she came up with was ketchup chips. Alrighty then, we tried our Canadian food for the day. We're trying not to say that they were bad, but we sure didn't buy any extras to bring home with us for later.
After eating our snacks, we headed to the marina for a boat ride to the south end of the lake. We bought our tickets for a ride on this 90-year-old wooden boat that has been plying these waters for most of its long life. The good news is that the strong American dollar made our tickets considerably cheaper since they were priced in Canadian currency.
We got seats on the open top section of the boat. This was a hold-onto-your-hat kind of day. We were warned that Waterton is always windy, and we were sailing right into the wind to make it even worse.
The views were lovely from the boat. We had our eyes peeled for bears along the shore, but they are hiding from us again. We're beginning to think that grizzlies are something out of a fairy tale.
About half-way through our boat ride we crossed the international border. A very straight line is cut through the trees clear to the top of the mountain on both sides of the lake. This line is maintained every year by an international group of rangers.
The international line on the other side of the lake was flatter and easier to maintain. We watched as a ranger-led group of hikers were stopped at the wooden dock in the picture below. The people are too small to see, but we watched as the ranger was dipping her water container into the lake to refill it for the hike back. The guy doing commentary on our boat ride said that all the locals drink water directly from the streams and lakes in this area. We knew they looked perfectly clear, but it looks like they are also perfectly clean.
It was fun to watch as the layers of blue mountains before us unfolded as we headed south.
Our boat docked on the south end of the lake, and we had about thirty minutes to explore before the boat headed back to Canada. For hikers wanting to hike on the U.S. trails past this point, there was a customs office set up in the forest. Passports would be required to hike into the wilderness area of Glacier National Park from this point.
We were taking the boat back, so we only had enough time for a few pictures on the pier looking north towards Canada.
Denisa is glad to have a plant-loving female along on this trip, as she and Patti notice the same unique plants along the trail. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like these interesting light blue berries with leaves that were turning red.
We were the last passengers back on the boat, so we lost our top deck seats. But we did manage to get the front row views by standing in the bow of the ship. We could see the snow still on the tops of the mountains around us. But we learned that these are snow fields--not glaciers. By definition, a glacier has to be a certain size and thickness, and moves on the mountain side. On the Canada side of the park, there are no glaciers.
As we pulled back into the north edge of the lake, we could see the grand Prince of Wales Lodge on the the right hand side of the picture, dwarfed by the towering Mount Crandell at 2356 meters--(thinking like a local again).
After the boat ride, we had some dinner in Waterton. We had noticed that our cell phones had no signal is this remote little town. Right in the middle of town, we saw an icon from the past--a working telephone booth.
We drove the only other road inside Waterton Lakes National Park. After 16 kilometers, the Akamina Parkway ended at Cameron Lake, where a red bear and her cub greeted us. We can now say that we spotted a Canadian bear in the national park.
We hiked the trail around Cameron Lake, hoping to make it to the foot of that majestic mountain that is actually in the United States. But a stop sign at the middle of the lakeshore trail made it clear that hikers weren't allowed any further. This tall brushy area along the lake is prime bear territory where hikers were not allowed. Do we believe in fairy tales like grizzly bears? In respect for Patti's safety, we convinced Mark that this wasn't a good time for his usual bush-whacking techniques.
Along this trail, we found some delicate white flowers, that looked like snowflakes in the middle of August.
Lake Cameron was a beautiful place to finish our time in Canada. We thought about making the drive back up to Red Rock Canyon, in search of those elusive bears. But we have many kilometers to drive before we get home, and it is already 6 p.m.
Remembering those black cows on the road, we were trying to get home before it got dark. There was a moment at the international border crossing that we thought we might get detained and not allowed back into the United States. Our passports say we are from Oklahoma, but our car is tagged in Texas. When Mark explained that we live in a motor home, we were afraid that the U.S. customs official might not let homeless people back into the country.
A few miles outside of East Glacier, we stopped for this sunset spread over that big Montana sky. It was a good day to visit Canada, but it's good to be back home in the United States!
No comments:
Post a Comment