August 27, 2025
I headed out early from Medicine Hat because I had a busy day ahead of me. My next stop would be Lethbridge, in southern Alberta, but today’s journey would take me well beyond that to Waterton Lakes National Park, in the southwest corner of Alberta, where it lies against the Canada/United States border. In fact, if you hike or travel across the border you will find yourself in Glacier National Park in Montana.
I have previously referred to this Park by two other names – just Waterton, though Lakes is technically part of the name, and Waterton Peace Park, which isn’t correct either. Within Waterton Lakes NP is the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a World Heritage site. All of that was kind of rattling around in my brain and I wish I had done my due diligence and researched the Peace Park part as I would have liked to go see it.
I came very close to not even visiting this Park at all. I knew it was here, and that I would pass by close to it, but several people along my route told me they didn’t think it was worth seeing. The consensus seemed to be “If you’ve seen the US Glacier NP (which I have) then there isn’t much to see at Waterton Lakes”. Now that I’ve been here I couldn’t disagree more, especially if you’re a hiker.
Getting to Lethbridge would take me a little less than two hours. I stopped for maps and brochures at the Visitor Centre and then set out for the Park, which would take me about an hour and a half more. I will go back to Lethbridge to spend the night, and will post photos from there tomorrow.
Getting to the Park would be a very pleasant drive on Hwy 5, through lots of farmland and small towns. I had been in relatively flat Saskatchewan and Alberta and would now be heading back into the southern tip of the Canadian Rockies.
It didn’t take long to start seeing big mountains ahead of me.
The mountains in the two photos above look very similar, but it appears that the two “pyramids” are now further away from the larger, “rectangular” mountain as I evidently had traveled further north and was now looking at them from a different angle. That is one thing that really plays games with my mind because as I drive the view of some mountains I see looks different as I get further down the road and pass by them.
Even after having been to the Park it is difficult for me to determine which of these mountains are in the United States and which are in Canada.
The small lake shown above is Maskinonge Lake, and is located at the point where Hwy 5 would turn left and become the access road into the Park itself. On the map below you will see the road I was coming in from on the right.
(Photo credit: Parks Canada)
The next lake I would see after the entry gate is Lower Waterton Lake:
And the next one would be Middle Waterton Lake:
Perched on the hill above this lake is the Prince of Wales Hotel:
I wasn’t allowed to park and get better pictures of the hotel from their parking lot because I was not staying there, but it is a very impressive building.
Shortly after that I came to a small hamlet of Waterton Park which apparently had about 200 private residences but seemed to be more about restaurants, hotels and gift shops. Hwy 5 ends in the village.
Photos of the rest of the National Park will continue in the next post.
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