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July 2000

Waterton Lakes National Park

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 19:59:48

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footing made for slow progress. Show here is the middle falls which is along that section (3). At times, the winds were so strong that none of the water coming over the falls reached the bottom. It simply disappeared as spray into the wind as the right-side flow is doing here.

The water is unsafe to drink due to giardia and thus it all has to be carried in with you. The only good part about this is that your pack will get lighter as you drink. The trail finally reaches the base of an enormous cliff in a grove of beargrass. Crypt Lake lies atop the cliff and an underground river running from the lake trickles over in a single drop of over 500 ft (150m). Here the trail becomes truly adventurous and we started to meet hikers who were unwilling to go further. First a goat path leads across a cliff face exposed to the wind. This ends with a short ladder leading up into a narrow cave. A tunnel extends through the rock and emerges next to the waterfall on the cliff face again. The tunnel was small enough that we had to push our packs through in front of us. Next comes a climb up the rest of the cliff with a stunning drop underneath you. An iron cable bolted to rock acts as the only safety line.

A short trail remains to the lake which is easily worth all the effort. The oval-shaped lake lies in a high cirque, surrounded on three sides by imposing peaks (4). The south shore is touched by a glacier which descends from the cliff walls on that side and is actually in Montana in the United States. Most hikers picnic on the north shore and then return. Amazingly we actually witnessed a few people who swam in the lake. After eating our lunch we determined to hike around the lake - after all, David had never been to Montana.

The shores are mostly loose rock and in some places steep slope to the very edge of the lake. Going around the lake, despite its relatively small size, is a time-consuming effort and ultimately led to us missing the first ferry back. (Luckily, there are two and we had arrived on the early one just in case). Further complicating the trek is the snow drifts which are still heavy in July.

On the far side though lies the glacier and it was kind enough to have a small calving while we were there (5). Supposedly, one can often see schools of cutthroat trout in the waters but we didn't notice any. The return was uneventful and slightly less strenuous. We left for Banff via the scenic route through Alberta's Kananaskis Country which we extremely highly recommend. The views are stunning, it snowed on us in July, and we saw countless elk and/or mule deer.