You Need to Visit Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada

          If Waterton Lakes wasn’t on your “must see” list before, it really should be.  It’s a National Park located in Alberta, Canada.  It’s just north of the American Glacier National Park.  You can actually go over the border from inside the parks sometimes.  The border crossing isn’t always open though.  This park is amazing. It’s a massive lake/lakes, surrounded by mountains.  The lake looks so much like a fjord, but I don’t think it counts as one because it’s fresh water.  

          We were there for one day, which is enough time to really get a feel for the park, I think.  We were able to see a lot of the park.  We didn’t go on any super long hikes.  We had our two small dogs though so that’s okay.  I think some of the things you really need to do are Driftwood Beach and Bear Hump Trail.   Driftwood beach is where you can get the nice view of the hotel with the mountains behind it.  Bear Hump Trail isn’t marked by a sign or on Google but it’s the little parking lot right across from the Prince of Whales Hotel.  It’s across Highway 5 from the hotel.  I found it on All Trails, so I’m not sure that is the actual name.  It was very difficult to find because the trail by the hotel isn’t labeled either.  Bear Hump Trail is a short trail but it’s all up hill.  You climb a mountain to get the amazing views overlooking the town.  You can see down the lake, into the U.S.  This trail was seriously amazing!

          There are several other things to do in this park but I didn’t do that much research before visiting.  There is a waterfall located in town called Cameron Falls.  We didn’t do it because I didn’t notice it on the map and we didn’t have extra time.  It looks really quick though.  We also went to Red Rock Canyon.  It’s pretty but If you are rushed, I’d skip it.  It’s a pretty small canyon and the trail was being renovated.  I’ve seen several red rock canyons in my life in the U.S. so it wasn’t that special to me.  We saw three bears in this park, two grizzlies, and one black bear.  There seems to be a lot of bears so if you are planning to do serious hikes you should probably bring bear spray.  The three that we saw were really close to the road in populated areas as well.  I can’t imagine how many you could see if you are on a long hike.  It was a really amazing day overall and I’d love to return.