Waterton Lakes national park part 1

We drove 181 miles from Canmore to Pincher Creek, a town in southwestern Alberta. We were supposed to go to Jasper, but with the wildfire still out of control and half the town burnt down, we pivoted and went south. Waterton lakes national park was high on our list of places we wanted to go initially, but we just couldn’t fit it into our schedule. When the fire reached the town of Jasper several weeks ago we figured we’d make a reservation down here in case our original reservations were canceled. This area is important in energy: wind, solar, oil, and coal industries are all prevalent here. It’s known as the windiest place in Canada and it feels like it!

Every day we drove from Pincher Creek to Waterton Lakes national park, about 40 minutes south of our campground. The drive was beautiful through farmland, horse farms, and an abrupt transition to steep Rocky Mountains. Each day was filled with an amazing hike in a quiet corner of the province.

Bear’s Hump leaves pretty much from the town center and climbs a steep ridge to a beautiful knoll and overlook. Although it’s short at 1.5 miles it climbs over 700 ft in the ¾ of a mile to the summit. After just a few minutes at the lookout on top, thunder pealed so we turned and headed back down. This hike marked our 200th mile hiking on this roadtrip! The views were beautiful but being on a high rocky knoll is not where we wanted to be with frequent lightning flashing. On our way down the trail another hiker pointed off in the distance at a momma black bear with 2 cubs heading down the mountain. We watched as two different groups of hikers almost had interactions with the bears but luckily both groups saw mama and backed out the way they came without incident. This makes black bears 14-16 for us on this trip! We also saw them as they scratched an itch up the hill from the road heading into town. After walking around town for a bit we headed to Red Rock canyon, another popular and scenic drive to a short hike. Upon arriving we realized it was much busier than expected and the hoard of people posing and meandering through the canyon made us pivot. Luckily there was another trailhead at the same parking lot to Blackiston falls. This 1.6 mile out and back hike was a gentle 280 ft elevation change and had beautiful fireweed growing out of the wildfire damage from 2017. Most of this area has evidence of this most recent fire but the wildflowers have exploded with the increase in ground light. On the drive back to the park exit we saw a large black bear foraging close to the road (black bear number 17 overall and 4th today!)

The drive along the Akamina parkway to Cameron lake was beautiful. The wildfire that ravaged this area in 2017 is still very evident from the burned trees and strong presence of fireweed (the purple wildflowers growing everywhere). Fireweed is a pioneer plant, meaning it’s one of the first to grow after a fire goes through an area. Once the trees grow back thicker, the fireweed doesn’t have enough sunlight and it won’t grow in these areas anymore. The flowers bloom from bottom to top, and once the top flowers die it’s supposedly the end of summer. The flowers were blooming right at the top so it seems about right for this area. We enjoyed a 2.4 mile walk along Cameron lake with views across the water to Montana (the mountain with glaciers on it is in Glacier NP as there are no glaciers left in Waterton). The trail ended abruptly in the woods with signs urging people to turn around since further ahead was a “grizzly garden.” This hike was very informative for what grizzlies like to eat other than mammals which came in handy later!

We experienced a high tea at the Prince of Wales hotel. Built in the 1920s in a Swiss chalet style, it’s incredibly maintained and is still traditional. There’s no AC and they serve high tea from 12-4. We made reservations for this a few days prior and enjoyed a great view of the lake and mountains along the iconic window line. Our server was very knowledgeable, and the teas and tray of food were delicious. As we were leaving there was a report of a black bear along the driveway, and as we were heading out it popped back onto the exit in front of our truck. It ran off into the forest and the people walking further up the drive had no idea it was there. A good reminder to always be aware of your surroundings here. Black bear number 18 for us!

Another day included a leisurely hike to Bertha lake after passing Bertha falls. Most people only hike to the falls as the trail gets much steeper including some nice switchbacks through raspberry bushes and cow parsnip (which we learned from our Cameron lake hike are two favorite snacks of grizzly bears!). The lake was beautiful and our recent onslaught of super steep hikes made this one very doable without any rest breaks heading up. After a snack at the lake we headed back down to complete this 7.25 mile long, 1900 ft elevation gain trek. We stopped just outside the park at the bison paddock where the park maintains a small herd. Bison used to roam wild here but were massacred by white settlers (because we’re the worst) and the area where they would normally be is now mostly farmland. It was neat to see them with the mountains in the background, but it would be nice if they could enjoy the vastness of the park area somehow.Les mer