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July 2000

Waterton Lakes National Park

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

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Flying into Calgary, we immediately headed south to Waterton Lakes National Park on the US border. The park adjoins Glacier National Park in the United States to form an impressively large wilderness area (with one road full of RVs that can safely be ignored). The Canadian park centers around the namesake town and lake.

The town itself is seasonal - catering to mostly local tourists during the summer. The far end of the lake (around the corner in the views shown here) is in Montana and several ferries service various hiking trails around the lake.

The 'beach' in the townsite consists of small to midsized rocks as does the lake bottom. While we were in town we made arrangements to take a ferry to the Crypt Lake Trail the next morning.

This picture is not crooked, the waterfall is. Glacier and Waterton Lakes are strewn with waterfalls (as well as lakes). This one, Cameron Falls (1), comes right through Waterton Townsite. Most of the rivers are fed by glacier melt during the summer months and the water is predictably frigid.

We stayed in the nearby town of Cardston, Alberta, which we happen to know is the home of Fay Wray (of King Kong fame) because on our walkthrough of town we visited the Fay Wray Memorial Fountain. Cardston was founded by Mormons and a huge temple dominates the town. It is also subject to the Chinook winds which tend to sandblast everything in sight (including us). The natives take this more or less in stride. En route from Waterton to Cardston we spotted this grizzly bear from the road. It was some distance (hence the poor quality picture) but it was our first live grizzly sighting so we were excited.

Sources seem to agree that the trail to Crypt Lake is one of the most challenging and rewarding hikes in all of Canada. We were anxious to test it out and it begins with a ferry ride to the trail head. The trail begins on the east ...