Waterton National Park

July 10, 2014 – Thursday - Truck Touring to Waterton National Park

 

       It was 9ºC, calm and sunny this morning. We packed a picnic lunch, filled our water bottles and topped off the truck with diesel. It was a full day ahead of us. The Destination, Waterton National Park in the southern part of Albert.

We drove south on the Cowboy Trail (Hyw22), through Bragg Creek, passing over Sheep Creek that had flooded last year and was now re-enforced with rocks. We drove through Turner Valley, Black Diamond, and Longview. We passed by Chain Lakes Provincial Park and arrived at the junction of #22 and #3 at 10:00am.

We stopped in Lundbreck looking for a service station and washroom, but could not find anything.

Passed over The Oldman River near Pincher Creek on #6 south where we stopped for diesel, coffee and The washroom.

There were many wind power turbos along the Alberta foothills in this area.

 

Before we arrived at Waterton National Park we stopped for a Waterton Park Front for a photo shoot of the valley, mountains and grassland flowers, which were of all colours and in full bloom.

We arrived at the National Park entrance at 11:00am. Many people were paying at the gate. We were able to used our National Park passes and drive through with a wave from the Park Warden.

On May 30, 1895, a 140 sq. km (54 sq. miles) area was protected by the federal government as a Dominion Forest Park, is now known as Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada. Waterton was Canada's 4th national park and is the smallest in the Canadian Rockies 505 sq.km (195 sq. miles). The park's name derives from the Waterton Lakes. This chain of lakes, named by Lieutenant Blakiston (a member of the Palliser Expedition), honours a British naturalist, Squire Charles Waterton (1782-1865).

Waterton is a small recreation town full of summer tourist and campers. The first place we stopped at was the Prince of Wales Hotel on the hill with a good view of Waterton Lake.

The Prince of Wales Hotel is located in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, overlooking Upper Waterton Lake, near the Canada-United States border. Constructed between 1926 and 1927, the hotel was built by the American Great Northern Railway to lure American tourists north of the border during the prohibition era. The hotel was named after the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), in a transparent attempt to entice him to stay in the hotel on his 1927 Canadian tour, but the Prince stayed at a nearby ranch instead. The Prince of Wales Hotel enjoys the distinction of being the sole establishment among Canada's grand railway hotels to have been built by an American, as opposed to a Canadian, railway company. The hotel was designated a National Historic Site of Canada by the Canadian government in 1995.

While Randal was taking pictures I wondered in the gift shop and purchased a biography of Robert Service. Randal did not know where I went and was watching for me to come out of the ladies room on second floor. He said he was worried!

 We check out the Waterton Townsite Campground www.pccamping.ca and were very pleased to see what was possible for us to come here for a couple of weeks or longer if that is possible. There are limited full service sites and do get booked up during July and August. We saw a few empty ones, so we may have a chance to get a site. There are good walking a biking paths there. The Townsite Campground is using the Parks Canada Reservation Service.

From there we drove to the Marina and watched the scenic cruise boat (the International) load up for the 1:00pm tour of Waterton Lake. This cruise takes place in Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. It has been in service since 1927.

Info from the brochure is cost $43.00/adult for a 21/2 hour trip with information and entertaining commentary from the tour guides. It takes 200 passages and travels south on one side and North on the other side of the lake, crossing the International Boundary to Goat Haunt, Montana. www.watertoncruise.com .

We walked over to the United Church because Randal wanted to know when Daryl Reine was booked as a guest minister for a week this summer. We talked to a church member who told us Daryl will be guest minister on Sunday July 27.

By 2:00 pm we walked back to where we parked by the marina and drove to the information center to make a pit stop. After leaving the park we stopped at the Buffalo Paddock. The paddock had a Texas Gate that lead to a one-way trail. We saw six or seven buffalo grouped by a pond and one laying down in a sand pit.

At Pincher Creek we turned east on Hwy 3 toward Fort Macleod, taking Hwy 2 north through Claresholm, High River, and then Calgary. Deerfoot trail by this time was very heavy traffic and slowed to a crawl. The GPS lady ask if we wanted to switch to pedestrian mode. At the north end of Deerfoot we took the Balzac exit to Rangeland RV Service Center. It was now 5:45pm and we had time to pick up a part ordered for the RV frig.

We were back at our trailer (Home) by 6:30pm, tired, hungry and feeling fully satisfied with the trip over 645 km and 300 pictures later.

So until next time remember to Discover It and Live It.