Tag: waterton-lakes-np

Waterton Lakes NP – Part 2 of 2

August 27, 2025

(Photo credit: Parks Canada)

After I arrived at the hamlet of Waterton Park I turned right onto Akamina Parkway to traverse the 10 miles out to Cameron Lake.

This is the part of our program where I tell you about the wildfire in 2017. It was started by lightning and began outside the Park but worked its way south and consumed roughly 39% of the trees in the Park.

There were several parking lots where visitors could leave their vehicles and hike. I finally arrived at Cameron Lake.

And looking left and right from the pier you can see the damage to the distant trees caused by the wildfire.

As you look straight out across the lake the mountain you see at the far end is actually in the United States, as is a small portion of the lake itself.

There was a large parking lot and a building where visitors could rent canoes and small boats to go out on the lake, and I imagine earlier in the summer swimming might be popular as well. There were rangers available to answer questions or give directions to visitors.

I stood and spoke with some of the other visitors before I left and was surprised to see a small deer calmly walk out of the lake:

I started driving back towards the village.

In the photo above you can see the Prince of Wales Hotel on the left, a small part of the village below and to the right, and parts of both Upper Waterton Lake (near) and Middle Waterton Lake (distance).

In the photo below you can see more of the village at the bottom of the frame and more of Upper Waterton Lake which continues south, well into the United States.

After descending down into the village I would start driving back towards the Park entrance, but encountered this lone bighorn sheep casually walking up the road before I got all the way down the hill.

There was no one behind me so I stopped in the road and put my hazard lights on. My next thought, after not wanting to get run into by another vehicle, was “do sheep with horns react to red cars like bulls might??”

Evidently not because he walked right past me without a care in the world.

When I got further up the road I turned left on Red Rock Parkway to check out that side of the Park. Some of the campgrounds and trails along that road were still closed as a result of the wildfire.

I must say I was very impressed with this Park and am glad some people convinced me it was worthwhile to visit after I had almost talked myself out of it.

Waterton Lakes NP – Part 1 of 2

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.