Waterton Lakes

Waterton Lakes National Park is the sister park to Glacier National Park, just across the border in Alberta, Canada. The park shares many similarities with Glacier, including impressive mountains, lakes, waterfalls and wildlife. It also has a nice town on the shore of the lake the provides many more choices for lodging and places to eat than you will find in most national parks in the U.S.

My first attempt to visit Waterton Lakes was in the summer of 2021, just after the border was re-opened following the pandemic. I had completed all my tests and paperwork to make the border crossing and started my drive through Glacier. Unfortunately, the road was closed at the pass due to an earlier car accident. I drove back to the park entrance and took the long way around but didn’t reach the border until it was closed for the night.

I had some time off between jobs this summer and was able to book a couple of nights in the park with my wife. I didn’t have a reservation to enter Glacier so we drove around the park to get to the east side. There were some nice clouds so I stopped a couple of times to take some photos of the landscape. Going around the park also had the advantage of allowing us to stop at the Kyiyo Mercantile, sister shop to the Polebridge Mercantile, which sells the same famous Huckleberry bear claws for a snack on the way.

We arrived in the early-afternoon in Waterton and checked into the Waterton Lakes Lodge Resort. Our room was just OK, but it got the job done and was just a couple minutes walk from the main street in town and several restaurants. The town is small and you can easily walk through it in a few minutes, but it is cute and in a beautiful location.

My goal for the afternoon was to hike to the Bear’s Hump. The hike is short, only a mile each way, but it is straight up the mountain with continuous switchbacks and stairs. The trailhead is near the Prince of Wales Hotel, which is an iconic part of the park and has some nice views of its own (the photo at the top of this post was from the hotel). The hill on the left in the photo below is where we were going.

The Bear’s Hump provides a birds-eye view overlooking Waterton Lake and the town. Off in the distance are mountains in Montana. The hike did hurt and I took advantage of the many benches along the way. The view was worth it. At least for me…

I set my alarm for midnight to take advantage of the rising moon for some night photography. My first location was from a hill I checked out on my way into town, with the Prince of Wales Hotel in the foreground and the mountains and stars behind it. The challenge with this photo was that the hotel lights were much brighter than the night sky, so I had to make a few exposures and blend the results on my computer.

I then moved to the hill next to the hotel itself, with a clearer view of the lake and town (similar to the photo at the top of this post). Again, the town lights were much brighter than the landscape so I blended two exposures to balance the light.

In the morning I walked to Cameron Falls in town before breakfast. I wanted to catch it before the light got too harsh as the sun rose into the sky.

The plan for the morning was to visit Red Rock Canyon. The drive to this area of the park is supposed to be a great place to see wildlife, but I had no luck with that. The canyon itself was really nice with a good combination of red rocks, water, greenery, and flowers. I managed a few photographs of the little waterfall in the canyon in between people taking selfies.

There is a nice trail around the canyon that can easily be explored in half an hour. The bridge at the top end of the trail provides a nice view into the canyon as well.

A short, easy hike from the canyon brings you to Blakiston Falls. There are nice viewpoints above and below the falls, but it isn’t particularly easy to get a good angle to isolate the waterfall in a photograph. I recommend the hike if you are in the area, but I wouldn’t plan on any award winning photos.

We drove to Cameron Lake after lunch, which is an area I’d like to explore more in the future, but the rainy weather that had moved in and the clouds of mosquitos in the air convinced me to head back to town. The lake is very pretty, though, with a backdrop of mountains. They rent kayaks for day use as well. Stormy weather rolled in that evening so the rest of my trip was limited to eating and shopping in town.