We were up at sunrise to hit the trail in Waterton Lakes National Park. This park straddles two landscapes, where the flat prairie meets the Rocky Mountains. The park also sits on the edge of two countries. It extends south all the way to the U.S. border, where the wilderness continues on as Glacier National Park. Waterton Lakes is often called the "Glacier National Park of Canada" since it is basically a continuation of Montana's Glacier National Park, but there is a seperate Glacier National Park in BC that we had visited the day before.
As I wrote about earlier in the trip, the national parks in Canada are much different than the U.S., often having towns and businesses right in the middle of the park. Waterton Lakes is one of those parks with the town of Waterton Park sitting inside the park. The town sits on the shores of Upper Waterton Lake. Hiking trails surround the huge lake. You can enter the woods right out the back of town, which is what we did. You quickly climb away from town into the mountains. Other trails start on the opposite side of the lake and are only accessible by boat. The Bertha Lake Trail took us to Bertha Falls, where we turned around. It was still several miles to the remote Bertha Lake. Another split off the trail goes all the way down to the U.S. border where you can cross into the U.S. backcountry. I would like to cross the border that way some day.
Almost walked right over this deer
Upper Waterton Lake and the town of Waterton Park from the trail
Bertha Falls
After 3.5 miles of hiking, we were back in town where we checked out Upper Waterton Lake and Cameron Falls. It was very windy and the waves on the lake were white-capping. The water was crystal clear with all sorts of colorful rocks lining the bottom. We visited a few shops in town, then departed. The park is much, much bigger than what we were able to visit, but most of the other area accessible by driving are closed due to a massive forest fire in the park back in 2017 that was started by intense lightning. The road is still blocked by downed trees and even melted in places. We will definitely have to come back as this park is beautiful and I would love to see more of it.
After leaving Waterton Lakes, we headed for the border. It was such a different border crossing compared to entering Canada. Instead of being thoroughly questioned on every little thing we were going to do, it was basically only two quick questions: "Did you buy weed and are trying to bring it back?" No. "Do you have any citrus fruit in your cooler?" No. "Welcome home!"
It was our first time visiting Montana. As you might imagine, we were here to visit Glacier National Park. The plan was to start on the east side of the park, drive through to the west side where we would camp and do some horseback riding. We wanted to do two guided things while on this trip, one in Canada and one in the U.S. We chose rafting in Canada and planned for horseback riding in the U.S. Shannon was pretty excited to get out on the horses.
As usual with our trips, plans were forced to change on the fly. We got to Glacier to find out that the middle portion of Going-to-the-Sun Road, the main and only road crossing the park, was closed for construction. That's one of the issues you run into when visiting these parks late in the season. The alternative route to get to the west side of the park is to drive completely around the south side of the park, a drive that normally takes about two hours from gate to gate. But of course there was construction on that route too, extending the anticipated drive time to over 4 hours. Great planning Park Service and State of Montana. With only two partial days of the trip remaining before we had to start home, we decided to just thoroughly explore the east side of the park and not waste time in construction traffic. That meant no horseback riding though, which was a bummer.
It was a beautiful afternoon when we entered Glacier. We drove Going-to-the-Sun Rd up to Logan Pass, which is where the road was closed. The drive is beautiful. I would love to ride it, but the park only allows bicycles to use the road at certain hours of the day, all of which had passed today. We parked at Logan Pass and hiked up the mountain to see Hidden Lake. The entire hike took place above treeline. I have probably never used the word "majestic" before, but the scenery at Logan Pass is definitely that. Huge mountain peaks all around. Most are silver or grey in color, a big contrast from the green rolling mountains I am used to seeing in the east coast ranges.
In Montana, headed for Glacier
Starting into the park on Going-to-the-Sun Rd
Rainbow in the spray of this small waterfall along Going-to-the-Sun Rd
Logan Pass
Hidden Lake
Hidden Lake Trail
Going-to-the-Sun Rd
Jackson Glacier in the distance
Horse trail going under Going-to-the-Sun Rd
After driving back down from Logan Pass, we put boots on the trail again to see more waterfalls. We got to see three waterfalls in 5.2 miles. We saw a couple of moose along the way. It was almost dark when we came out of the woods. We had seen another couple trying to reach the last waterfall before dark. I had told them it was worth going to. It would put them out after dark, but they went for it anyway. We waited at the parking lot until they got out as we were the only ones left at the trailhead. The search then began for a place to camp. Of course, one of the two campgrounds on this end of the park was closed. So we had lots of people stuck on one end of the park and only half the camping that is normally available. All the campsites at St. Mary's Campground were full except for two handicap accessible sites. It was after 8pm so I felt like they probably weren't going to be occupied tonight so we pulled into one. I was willing to leave or share the site if someone needed the spot. Fortunately, nobody needed it and we had a place for the night. It ended up being another night in the van as no tents were permited. Only hard-sided camping units were allowed due to high grizzly bear activity in the campground over the past few weeks. At least we had practiced for this several times over the past two weeks. Rocking the toaster yet again. Of course, this was the only night on the entire trip that I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee. I was scanning the entire campground with my flashlight as I walked to the bathhouse, but did not see any bears.
