We have only one full day in Waterton, Alberta.\u00a0 I really didn\u2019t know what we would do here other than hike a few trails and poke around the area.\u00a0 It turned out to be quite the surprise though.\u00a0 The largest town is about 3 hours from here.\u00a0 The other towns are fair sized.\u00a0 This is actually a resort area for many parts of Canada.\u00a0 It is quite beautiful and peaceful here.<\/p>\n
Rich woke me up this morning with the news that I had slept in.\u00a0 This was the first day I had actually done that.\u00a0 I was really tired yesterday.\u00a0 I guess it showed.\u00a0 We got up and got ready for the day.\u00a0 First stop was breakfast.\u00a0 We went across the street to Pearl\u2019s Caf\u00e9 to eat.\u00a0 This was because we had a 10% off coupon.\u00a0 This was a little disappointing since it was really just breakfast sandwiches.\u00a0 We got the Hungry Hiker rollup, which had egg, sausage, and some other stuff on it.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t bad, just not what we wanted.\u00a0 The coffee was good though.<\/p>\n
We walked down to the marina and purchased our tickets for the cruise around Waterton Lake.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t plan to go hiking, but figured we would cruise the lake and see the sights in comfort.\u00a0 We had some time and came back to put on sunscreen and get our hats.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t take our passports since we didn\u2019t plan to need them.\u00a0 So we missed getting them stamped with the Goat Haunt symbol.<\/p>\n
Back at the marina, the line was getting pretty long for the cruise.\u00a0 We jumped into place and waited with the masses.\u00a0 Pretty soon, they began to board.\u00a0 The boat had an upper deck out in the open while the bottom had windows.\u00a0 The fantail of the boat had a roof, but no windows.\u00a0 We headed for this and settled into the corner.\u00a0 Pretty soon, it was full with little room to move around.<\/p>\n
Captain Tom got the boat underway.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Jeremy was the tour guide for the trip.\u00a0 This was his first year on the boat and he was doing all the talking.\u00a0 He turned out to be very entertaining for a young man.<\/p>\n
First thing he did was tell us where everything was on the boat.\u00a0 Men\u2019s\u2019 room was on the left since the women are always right.\u00a0 OK, maybe not so original.\u00a0 Jeremy told us a great fishing story on the way out.\u00a0 Mr. and Mrs. Hunter and a friend were going fishing in 1921.\u00a0 Mr. Hunter and the friend took the boat and left Mrs. Hunter on the shore.\u00a0 Everyone knows that women in boats are bad luck.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Jeremy proceeded to tell us why he didn\u2019t believe women were bad luck on boats.\u00a0 He always tried to get as many girls as possible whenever he took his boat out.<\/p>\n
By the way, Pat\u2019s Garage has a picture of Mrs. Hunter with her prize catch.\u00a0 No one has caught a bigger fish in the lake since.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Bet those guys were sorry to see her at the end of their day.<\/p>\n
As the cruise headed toward the Montana side the lake, Jeremy said to let him know if we saw any wildlife on the mountain.\u00a0 I happened to see a black bear wondering from the trees into a clearing.\u00a0 I just could tell him fast enough since we were downstairs.\u00a0 It was an adult and just lumbering along.\u00a0 I was so excited I didn\u2019t get a picture or tell Rich about it!\u00a0 I did see one, really!<\/p>\n
Jeremy gave us more information on the formations around and the park history.\u00a0 We got to the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Apparently, every year or two, the ranger teams from each side go up through the mountains and clean up the line.\u00a0 This is because the agreement between the two countries states that the line must be easily recognized.\u00a0 Jeremy\u2019s comment was that in the plains, they must then plant trees on the border so you can see it.<\/p>\n
We arrived on the U.S. side at Goat Haunt.\u00a0 This was a place that the mountain goats used to hang out.\u00a0 That was back in the days before they used to hunt the goats to almost extinction.\u00a0 The name stuck though.\u00a0 Two border guards got off the boat just ahead of us and went off in the direction of the rangers\u2019 station.\u00a0 If you wanted to go beyond that point, you had to go through them to pass customs.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t plan on doing this.<\/p>\n
After a 25 minute stop to walk around and take pictures, we boarded the boat to return to Waterton.\u00a0 This time, Rich and I sat on top to get a better view.\u00a0 The mountains were beautiful.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Apparently, this one little squiggle was the best preserved formation showing the plate tetonics in the area.\u00a0 National Geographic had been out a couple of times to film for a documentary.\u00a0 It was cool how the folds showed the crinkle in the rock from the pushing force around it.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve seen really old rock and now the evidence of plate pressure.<\/p>\n
We continued on with the cruise without seeing any wildlife.\u00a0 The comments were fun and Jeremy did an excellent job for his fourth stent as a tour guide.\u00a0 We got off the boat at the marina and headed down to Trapper\u2019s to pick up some t-shirts that I wanted.\u00a0 From there, it was lunch at the Wiener Shack.\u00a0 We got dogs and poutine.\u00a0 One of the national dishes in Canada is poutine, which is fries covered with gravy and cheese curds.\u00a0 It really is pretty good.\u00a0 When in Canada you know.<\/p>\n
Time to jump in the car and drive to a few spots.\u00a0 We drove down to the Cameron Falls which is just at the edge of Waterton townsite.\u00a0 The falls were just gushing down the mountain.\u00a0 We sat on the benches enjoying the cool spray.\u00a0 Then Rich decided he could do the 60 foot straight up walk to the top of the falls.\u00a0 Not me, I\u2019m all hiked out at the moment.\u00a0 I sat and watched him.\u00a0 That and watched the kids feeding the ground squirrels all around me.<\/p>\n
I bet you wonder why I kept saying Waterton townsite.\u00a0 I wondered that also when I figured out this leg of the vacation.\u00a0 Everything in this area has Waterton in the name.\u00a0 Townsite is used to distinguish the actual town from the rest of the attractions in the area with the same name.\u00a0 Townsite must be the Canadian way of saying town.\u00a0 Like my town is referred to as The Burg.<\/p>\n
We went further down the road to the beach.\u00a0 Now why do you need a beach on a glacier feed lake.\u00a0 The water is like 30 degrees.\u00a0 We did see people playing in it, but not staying very long.\u00a0 The beach is gravel and chunk rocks all around.\u00a0 There is no sand.\u00a0 The loose gravel is just as bad as sand for walking.\u00a0 We walked down the beach to where the Cameron Creek met the lake.\u00a0 You could see where the spring runoff could be very, very, VERY wide.\u00a0 Today, it was a single creek, but pretty forceful.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 It was pretty cool to walk out there.\u00a0 Some guy had his three kids down there to play.\u00a0 Just image how much kids love to play with rocks.\u00a0 These three were in heaven with tons and tons of rocks around them to move and do what they wanted with.\u00a0 He was getting some very quiet time on the bank.<\/p>\n
From here, we drove up to the Prince of Wales hotel on the hill above the townsite.\u00a0 This imposing structure look very large from a distance.\u00a0 We got up to the hotel and the parking lot was pretty small.\u00a0 The hotel isn\u2019t that big up close.\u00a0 I was a little disappointed.\u00a0 Compared to the other hotels built by the railway, this one was small in size.\u00a0 The grandeur was good though.\u00a0 It was very beautiful inside.\u00a0 The chandelier was a humongous wrought iron structure suspended from the ceiling.\u00a0 Rich got a really great shot of this.<\/p>\n
Late lunches were being served in the main lobby area along with a harp player.\u00a0 I think there were getting ready for high tea at 4:00.\u00a0 We wondered the gift shop, where Rich could get yet another cup of coffee.\u00a0 He was disappointed that he couldn\u2019t have a good beer and sit on the bluff overlooking the lake.\u00a0 From there, we went out to the bluff to take pictures.\u00a0 It was a great view to all of the lakes around.\u00a0 We found a nice rock that allowed us to sit and contemplate the view.\u00a0 The wind was whipping around us and it was warm.\u00a0 It was a great place to sit for a while.<\/p>\n
Time to head back to town.\u00a0 We decided to go look for someplace that would allow us to drink and sit as close to the lake as possible.\u00a0 We found it at the Fireside Lounge.\u00a0 Rich had a McNally\u2019s Irish Ale and I had a white wine sangria.\u00a0 It was perfect.\u00a0 We watched the foot traffic walking by and listened to the conversation around us.\u00a0 Everyone was Canadian so there were different accents and they were holding some interesting conversations.\u00a0 The best one was the lady with the Siberian Husky whom she failed to teach how to stop.\u00a0 That would be the first thing to teach a Husky!\u00a0 They don\u2019t understand the concept of stop.<\/p>\n
We walked around town a bit and then came back to rest up and clean up.\u00a0 How can I be so tired over the last couple of days?\u00a0 It\u2019s not like I hiked my usual 5 miles.\u00a0 OK, that might be the reason right there.\u00a0 We decided on the location for dinner and walked down to the street going in that direction.\u00a0 I looked up to see a deer walking along the fence of the playground on the corner.\u00a0 The darn deer turned into the playground and started feasting on grass.\u00a0 There was a group of three boys on that particular hill.\u00a0 One of the guys stood up and was trying to figure out what to do.\u00a0 The deer didn\u2019t seem to care and kept on munch.\u00a0 I bet those boys weren\u2019t more than 10 yards from the deer.\u00a0 That\u2019s like last night when we walked within 5 feet of a deer.\u00a0 They just don\u2019t care!<\/p>\n
We went on dinner.\u00a0 One thing I have to say about this side is it\u2019s expensive to eat.\u00a0 Everything has to get trucked in for the time period.\u00a0 There is only one very small grocery store.\u00a0 The restaurants work very hard to provide good quality, but that means expense.\u00a0 I assume since this is a resort, everyone expects that.\u00a0 The people are friendly and try very hard to please and help.<\/p>\n
According to Jeremy on the boat tour, the town population is typically 2,000 people in the summer.\u00a0 That\u2019s just the town and its workers and not the tourists.\u00a0 During the winter, there are only 50 residents and one restaurant and one hotel is open.\u00a0 Everything else closes up and the people go somewhere else to work and live.<\/p>\n
After dinner, we walked back up to Pat\u2019s Garage because we realized we had forgotten to see the picture of Mrs. Hunter with her huge trout.\u00a0 It was big.\u00a0 There are other trophy fish on the wall there.\u00a0 The next largest trout was like 12 lbs.\u00a0 Nowhere near that of Mrs. Hunter\u2019s catch of the century or two.<\/p>\n
We meandered back to our hotel to hang out.\u00a0 We contemplated one more beer, but that would mean moving and we are just cozy here.\u00a0 Tomorrow, we begin the end of vacation and start for home.\u00a0 The first leg is to Sheridan, Wyoming.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Our](\"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cruise-ship-on-Waterton.jpg\")
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