We have only one full day in Waterton, Alberta. I really didn’t know what we would do here other than hike a few trails and poke around the area. It turned out to be quite the surprise though. The largest town is about 3 hours from here. The other towns are fair sized. This is actually a resort area for many parts of Canada. It is quite beautiful and peaceful here.
Rich woke me up this morning with the news that I had slept in. This was the first day I had actually done that. I was really tired yesterday. I guess it showed. We got up and got ready for the day. First stop was breakfast. We went across the street to Pearl’s Café to eat. This was because we had a 10% off coupon. This was a little disappointing since it was really just breakfast sandwiches. We got the Hungry Hiker rollup, which had egg, sausage, and some other stuff on it. It wasn’t bad, just not what we wanted. The coffee was good though.
We walked down to the marina and purchased our tickets for the cruise around Waterton Lake. We didn’t plan to go hiking, but figured we would cruise the lake and see the sights in comfort. We had some time and came back to put on sunscreen and get our hats. We didn’t take our passports since we didn’t plan to need them. So we missed getting them stamped with the Goat Haunt symbol.
Back at the marina, the line was getting pretty long for the cruise. We jumped into place and waited with the masses. Pretty soon, they began to board. The boat had an upper deck out in the open while the bottom had windows. The fantail of the boat had a roof, but no windows. We headed for this and settled into the corner. Pretty soon, it was full with little room to move around.
Captain Tom got the boat underway. We could see the Prince of Wales hotel from the water as it towered over us from the hill at the end of the lake. Jeremy was the tour guide for the trip. This was his first year on the boat and he was doing all the talking. He turned out to be very entertaining for a young man.
First thing he did was tell us where everything was on the boat. Men’s’ room was on the left since the women are always right. OK, maybe not so original. Jeremy told us a great fishing story on the way out. Mr. and Mrs. Hunter and a friend were going fishing in 1921. Mr. Hunter and the friend took the boat and left Mrs. Hunter on the shore. Everyone knows that women in boats are bad luck. When the men returned with their little fish, they discovered that Mrs. Hunter had caught a record trout for the lake that weighed 52 lbs. and 12 oz. Jeremy proceeded to tell us why he didn’t believe women were bad luck on boats. He always tried to get as many girls as possible whenever he took his boat out.
By the way, Pat’s Garage has a picture of Mrs. Hunter with her prize catch. No one has caught a bigger fish in the lake since. The picture shows a woman who looks a lot like Ma Kettle from the movies holding this huge trout that stretches from her chest to the ground. Bet those guys were sorry to see her at the end of their day.
As the cruise headed toward the Montana side the lake, Jeremy said to let him know if we saw any wildlife on the mountain. I happened to see a black bear wondering from the trees into a clearing. I just could tell him fast enough since we were downstairs. It was an adult and just lumbering along. I was so excited I didn’t get a picture or tell Rich about it! I did see one, really!
Jeremy gave us more information on the formations around and the park history. We got to the boundary between the U.S. and Canada. There is a swath of clearing from the lake and up over the mountain with a border marker for the U.S. and one for Canada. Apparently, every year or two, the ranger teams from each side go up through the mountains and clean up the line. This is because the agreement between the two countries states that the line must be easily recognized. Jeremy’s comment was that in the plains, they must then plant trees on the border so you can see it.
We arrived on the U.S. side at Goat Haunt. This was a place that the mountain goats used to hang out. That was back in the days before they used to hunt the goats to almost extinction. The name stuck though. Two border guards got off the boat just ahead of us and went off in the direction of the rangers’ station. If you wanted to go beyond that point, you had to go through them to pass customs. We didn’t plan on doing this.
After a 25 minute stop to walk around and take pictures, we boarded the boat to return to Waterton. This time, Rich and I sat on top to get a better view. The mountains were beautiful. We got to a specific place on the mountain and Jeremy explained that a specific V and A pattern in the rock just above the water line had been designated a particular geological formation. Apparently, this one little squiggle was the best preserved formation showing the plate tetonics in the area. National Geographic had been out a couple of times to film for a documentary. It was cool how the folds showed the crinkle in the rock from the pushing force around it. So we’ve seen really old rock and now the evidence of plate pressure.
We continued on with the cruise without seeing any wildlife. The comments were fun and Jeremy did an excellent job for his fourth stent as a tour guide. We got off the boat at the marina and headed down to Trapper’s to pick up some t-shirts that I wanted. From there, it was lunch at the Wiener Shack. We got dogs and poutine. One of the national dishes in Canada is poutine, which is fries covered with gravy and cheese curds. It really is pretty good. When in Canada you know.
Time to jump in the car and drive to a few spots. We drove down to the Cameron Falls which is just at the edge of Waterton townsite. The falls were just gushing down the mountain. We sat on the benches enjoying the cool spray. Then Rich decided he could do the 60 foot straight up walk to the top of the falls. Not me, I’m all hiked out at the moment. I sat and watched him. That and watched the kids feeding the ground squirrels all around me.
I bet you wonder why I kept saying Waterton townsite. I wondered that also when I figured out this leg of the vacation. Everything in this area has Waterton in the name. Townsite is used to distinguish the actual town from the rest of the attractions in the area with the same name. Townsite must be the Canadian way of saying town. Like my town is referred to as The Burg.
We went further down the road to the beach. Now why do you need a beach on a glacier feed lake. The water is like 30 degrees. We did see people playing in it, but not staying very long. The beach is gravel and chunk rocks all around. There is no sand. The loose gravel is just as bad as sand for walking. We walked down the beach to where the Cameron Creek met the lake. You could see where the spring runoff could be very, very, VERY wide. Today, it was a single creek, but pretty forceful.
We crossed the bridge to the other side and walked on the gravel (not sand) bar created by the full force of the creek from runoff. It was pretty cool to walk out there. Some guy had his three kids down there to play. Just image how much kids love to play with rocks. These three were in heaven with tons and tons of rocks around them to move and do what they wanted with. He was getting some very quiet time on the bank.
From here, we drove up to the Prince of Wales hotel on the hill above the townsite. This imposing structure look very large from a distance. We got up to the hotel and the parking lot was pretty small. The hotel isn’t that big up close. I was a little disappointed. Compared to the other hotels built by the railway, this one was small in size. The grandeur was good though. It was very beautiful inside. The chandelier was a humongous wrought iron structure suspended from the ceiling. Rich got a really great shot of this.
Late lunches were being served in the main lobby area along with a harp player. I think there were getting ready for high tea at 4:00. We wondered the gift shop, where Rich could get yet another cup of coffee. He was disappointed that he couldn’t have a good beer and sit on the bluff overlooking the lake. From there, we went out to the bluff to take pictures. It was a great view to all of the lakes around. We found a nice rock that allowed us to sit and contemplate the view. The wind was whipping around us and it was warm. It was a great place to sit for a while.
Time to head back to town. We decided to go look for someplace that would allow us to drink and sit as close to the lake as possible. We found it at the Fireside Lounge. Rich had a McNally’s Irish Ale and I had a white wine sangria. It was perfect. We watched the foot traffic walking by and listened to the conversation around us. Everyone was Canadian so there were different accents and they were holding some interesting conversations. The best one was the lady with the Siberian Husky whom she failed to teach how to stop. That would be the first thing to teach a Husky! They don’t understand the concept of stop.
We walked around town a bit and then came back to rest up and clean up. How can I be so tired over the last couple of days? It’s not like I hiked my usual 5 miles. OK, that might be the reason right there. We decided on the location for dinner and walked down to the street going in that direction. I looked up to see a deer walking along the fence of the playground on the corner. The darn deer turned into the playground and started feasting on grass. There was a group of three boys on that particular hill. One of the guys stood up and was trying to figure out what to do. The deer didn’t seem to care and kept on munch. I bet those boys weren’t more than 10 yards from the deer. That’s like last night when we walked within 5 feet of a deer. They just don’t care!
We went on dinner. One thing I have to say about this side is it’s expensive to eat. Everything has to get trucked in for the time period. There is only one very small grocery store. The restaurants work very hard to provide good quality, but that means expense. I assume since this is a resort, everyone expects that. The people are friendly and try very hard to please and help.
According to Jeremy on the boat tour, the town population is typically 2,000 people in the summer. That’s just the town and its workers and not the tourists. During the winter, there are only 50 residents and one restaurant and one hotel is open. Everything else closes up and the people go somewhere else to work and live.
After dinner, we walked back up to Pat’s Garage because we realized we had forgotten to see the picture of Mrs. Hunter with her huge trout. It was big. There are other trophy fish on the wall there. The next largest trout was like 12 lbs. Nowhere near that of Mrs. Hunter’s catch of the century or two.
We meandered back to our hotel to hang out. We contemplated one more beer, but that would mean moving and we are just cozy here. Tomorrow, we begin the end of vacation and start for home. The first leg is to Sheridan, Wyoming.
