July 11 - Glacier NP to Waterton Lakes NP, Alberta Canada

Day 11

First I have to say that staying at Rising Sun Lodge in Glacier is a wonderful experience. The staff, from custodial/security through restaurant staff and front desk are accommodating with every request or question. You will have a wonderful time there and the food is great too!  We'll only be gone an overnight and return to Rising Sun on the 12th so packing up was a not a real neat job. The cottonwood blooms are spreading their seedlings everywhere in front of our cabin.

That said, we left Rising Sun Lodge and journeyed to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada aka The International Peace Park. Traffic was light and Chief Mountain Highway is a beautiful drive.

Chief Mountain

And when it says to watch for cattle, you'd better believe 'em.

My faux pas at the border has bothered me since then since the directions were clearly marked but I didn't follow them. I was SUPPOSED TO wait at the sign until directed but, the sheep that I must be, when the car ahead of me left, I pulled up. With a quick SLAM of his sliding glass window, the border patrol shut it and let me sit. When he opened the window again, he asked for our passports and said, "It isn't wise to run a stop sign in front of a policeman", and added that I should be careful. He then asked the obligatory where are you from, where are you going, how long will you be staying, where will you staying, and are you carrying any firearms, drugs or pepper spray. I showed him my bear spray and he was satisfied. Returning our passports, I was glad to leave his station.

We stopped at the first overlook for pictures (go figure) and were rewarded with a fox walking through the parking lot, over the fence and down into the valley below. Wildflowers abound and pictures just don't do justice to what the eye can see and the nose can enjoy.

We headed for the Bison Paddock drive before entering the park. This herd roams freely in a large fenced area and the parking lot outside the paddock allows for a walk to a viewpoint to see them from afar first. We were warned by signs to drive slowly and remain in our cars. But, like bear sightings in the past, people just can't resist getting out of their car and walking down the road or nearer these huge wild animals.

Since we couldn't check in until 4:00, we took the Akamina Parkway drive to Cameron Lake with a brief stop for lunch at a picnic area near a fast-running stream. Two kayakers took off into the icy rapids to test their skills.

Cameron Lake was beautiful with boat, canoe, and paddle boat rentals available. And fresh water trout meandered beneath the waters for our enjoyment and cameras with their red and white-tipped fins.

With a stop to get ice cream, we found a wonderful wood artist and I bought some Christmas gifts for my kids. Our return down the parkway from the same way we came up gave us a brief stop at the site of the First Oil-Producing Well in Canada right along another rapids filled stream. Oil seeps in this area were well known with the bears using them to ward off insects and the Aboriginal people used it for medicine. The search for oil began in 1870 and, due to inexperience and difficulty in transportation, ended in 1893. In 1898, William Aldridge made a living off oil for 7 years by soaking it up in gunny sacks and skimming it from sluice boxes which produced 10-15 gallons per day. He hauled it out on pack mules and sold it for medicine and as a lubricant to support his family of 15!

Avalanche Country

The Townsite is THE town in Waterton and very quaint. The highest land point is home to the Prince of Wales Hotel which is beautifully massive.  Our cute Crandell Mountain Lodge has rooms fit for a queen! Coming from the shower in the park where I had to open the shower curtain in order to bend over to wash my legs, this bathroom is HUGE with a tub and shower and area of 3 times the park bath. All the amenities you could possibly want are packed into this room without making it crowded. The TV with rabbit ears leaves a great deal to be desired. It gets channel 6 and a snowy 12 so I'm thinking people use it more for hooking up video games and the like. Deer gather on the small bowl across the street each night according to our host at the front desk and ignore the many humans to have a leisurely feed and rest under a shade tree.

We took a walk around the town that covers five square blocks and runs along Upper Waterton Lake.
Pat's Filling Station was our first stop in search of alcohol. There were these cute bicycles outside for rent with a front seat, safety belt, and footrest for the kids to buckle up and enjoy Mom and Dad's efforts.

 We ended up buying a hat pin and getting directions to the liquor store. We got our bottle of Canadian Rye Whisky from the Rye section NOT a whisky section. We had picked up Chinook Canadian whisky (because we wanted Canadian) and asked the young man at the counter if we would be happy with it. He said HE wouldn't be happy with it and we might want to try the Royal Reserve. So we did! That and a six pack of diet Coke should do us for a while. The Rez will be dry until Monday due to the North American Pow Wow being held in Browning at the moment.

Dropping our goods and making a couple blocks of ice for our cooler in our mini-fridge, we headed out to Red Rock Canyon Parkway in search of wildlife.

In a quick glance, I thought I saw a bear and a little boy too near it! My heart skipped a beat and I know my blood pressure must have risen only to discover the WOODEN bear and the little boy making "scared" faces for the camera. Whew! Others stopped after us thinking it was real as well so I don't feel quite so gullible.

Most people don't stop for the roadside educational placards but we're not most people and boy are we glad! The short walk to a beautifully constructed platform gave us wildflower identification signs and when we looked up from our shooting, THERE'S A BEAR!

After he walked away from being just under our overlook, he meandered down a well-worn path. Can you see him?

Down below us and walking along the river bank was a black bear strolling along. We had stopped for our Native Information Stop and ended up with great photos and video of this big fur ball. Bears look so cuddly from this distance...just the distance I like seeing them!

At the end of our drive were trails for bikes, walkers, and horses. The canyon stream was currently populated with locals as a swimming hole complete with fun waterfalls to walk under.

We took a short hike down one side and up the other and my battery started blinking its overuse signal so I shut down in case we had a wildlife stop on the way back down.

AND BOY WAS I GLAD I DID! More than halfway back, we encountered a traffic jam which, again, means only one thing...WILDLIFE! The driver in front of mean was pointing up the hill so I searched an found a brown bear barely visible in the high brambles. Warnings will tell you not to hike in those brambles since bears are so well hidden and can be in your face without either of you knowing the other was there! A couple shots and the mosquitoes forced us to roll up our windows and continue on our way.

Dinner  of bison and beef burgers at Vimy's in the Townsite allowed us to taste the difference from each other's plate. The bison burger had much more flavor. It took an inordinate amount of time to bring our burgers so we figured they were really fresh since they must have butchered the animals after we ordered. To fill our time while we sipped our glasses of water, we watched the Tampa Bay Rays get defeated by the Toronto Blue Jays after having a 5-all tie.

In our room, we downloaded photos and deleted MANY duplicates (our feeble attempt at getting that GREAT shot by using the continuous shot setting) before taking showers and hitting the hay. We have to be out of the room by 10:30a so we'll work on our blogs in the morning and then walk the town to spend some money before heading back to Glacier.