Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

The U.S. National Park system is replete with beautiful and amazing places, none more so than the visually stunning Glacier National Park in Montana and its Canadian counterpart, Waterton Lakes. It had been thirteen years since Darla and I last visited these parks. We were eager to return to the wildflowers and lakes, grizzly bears and mountain goats, and all the incredible vistas that make this place my favorite park.

Two Medicine Lake

Our first stop was Two Medicine, a section of Glacier we had never seen. Situated around three lakes near the southeast corner of the park, this area is a favorite among fishermen. For us, it would serve as a brief stopover on our way to Waterton Lakes, the Canadian section of the park.

Two Medicine Campground

It was to our benefit that Two Medicine is one of the lesser visited areas of Glacier. There were still a few campsites available in mid-afternoon. This was ours – just across the road from Two Medicine Lake.

Throwin’ Rocks

There were seven of us on this trip: Darla and I; our 3 year old son, Lewis (“The Boy”); his cousins, Timmy and Claire; and my parents (“Papa T” and “Mimi”).

Missing from our troupe were my sister, Susan, and her husband, Mike, whose plan to meet up with us in Montana was thwarted by their anything-but-trusty Dodge Caravan. Now the plan was for them to retrieve Timmy and Claire at the conclusion of our trip.

Upon our arrival at the campground, Timmy, Claire, and Lewis did what all kids are programmed from birth to do: Proceed to the nearest body of water and throw stuff into it. Anything light enough to lift was fair game.

Running Eagle Falls Trail

The next morning we stopped at Running Eagle Falls Trail, a short trail to a modest waterfall. It gave us an opportunity to get a little exercise before we continued our journey north into Canada.

Tattle Boy

It didn’t take long for The Boy to notice that The Dad had wandered off the trail.

Scenic Breakdown on Hwy 89

Several months prior to this trip, it had become necessary to replace six of the injectors in our Duramax diesel engine. Unfortunately, our dealership miscalibrated one of them, an error that went undetected until the engine was put under load. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere when we realized we had a problem. We immediately pulled over and shut off the engine; however, instead of grabbing my tools, I grabbed my camera.

As it turned out, I didn’t need my tools. Turning off the engine resolved the problem – albeit temporarily. Although these symptoms would recur a number of times over the course of our trip, we were able to put off addressing them until we returned home.

Don’t Fence Me Out

My mom captured this image. I like what she did with the barbed wire fence.

Canada’s Waterton Lakes

The first half of our trip would be spent in Waterton Lakes, Canada’s contribution to this international peace park. I always feel a little sorry for folks who visit Glacier and don’t take the time to cross the border. Yes, the Canadian side is much smaller than its U.S. counterpart but it is just as stunning and maybe a bit more accessible.

Ground Squirrels

Our campground in Waterton Lakes was infested with these little varmints. They were everywhere – hundreds of them. In fact, we had to be careful as we walked across the grass so as not to twist an ankle in the entrance to one of their underground burrows.

“They’re prairie dogs,” I explained to Lewis.

“No, they’re not,” Timmy interjected. “They’re too small to be prairie dogs. They’re ground squirrels.”

“Prairie dogs!” I insisted, not wanting to be shown up by my nephew in front of The Boy. Timmy was too polite to continue arguing but the look on his face made it clear that he pitied his poor ignorant uncle – and with good reason: They were, in fact, ground squirrels.

Little Sentries

At first, The Boy was somewhat intimidated by these little brown creatures. Clearly used to being fed, they would wander up with little hesitation in hopes of soliciting a handout. Once Lewis figured out that he could intimidate them, the tables were turned and there was little peace for the ground squirrels living around our campsite.

Signs & Cans

The Boy had two great loves at this stage of life: signs and cans. He was much younger when The Dad got him started touching signs on their walks together. Lewis adopted the practice with an Adrian Monk-like fervor that became a little too obsessive for The Mom’s comfort.

Bowling Boy

Cans were another object of desire, particularly the bright red Coke cans. The Boy loved to roll them, throw them, and crush them.

Walkin' Boy

Upper Waterton Lake is just across the road from the Waterton Townsite Campground. Once word got out that rocks and water were only…well…a stone’s throw away, there wasn’t much of a question as to our first order of business…

Cameron Lake

“Look at this flower, Daddy!”

The Boy had yet to fully grasp the “Leave No Trace” concept as we left Cameron Lake on the Carthew-Alderson Trail.

Just Getting Started

One of the most scenic trails in the entire park, Carthew-Alderson runs twelve miles between Cameron Lake and Waterton Townsite. Although we had gone the full twelve miles on a previous trip, this was not our goal today. We hoped to make it four miles to a viewpoint before returning to Cameron Lake.

The Boy proved to be a good hiker until he realized there was an alternative to climbing the steep switchbacks. There’s no unringing this bell, Papa T!

“It’s hot, Papa T!”

If there is one thing The Boy has never tolerated, it is being hot. As long as we remained under the forest canopy in the cool shade, he was happy. As soon as we emerged into the sun, off came the clothes. First, the shirt; then, the shorts.

Eventually The Boy was forced to dismount Papa T and walk for himself, at which point he attempted to jettison his last remaining article of clothing, his pull up – to the delight of passers by. A gal walking toward us asked the men in her group why they had never thought of that.

Moose in Summit Lake

Today was our lucky day. We got to see a moose. No, it wasn’t a male with a huge rack but at least it was a moose. Of all the wildlife indigenous to the Western U.S., moose always seem to prove the most elusive for us. This was Lewis’ first moose sighting.

Enjoying the View

Summit Lake marked the halfway point to our destination. It was clear that not all of us were going to make it, so Mom and Darla turned back with the three young’uns while Dad and I continued on.

Destination In Sight

The little peak on the distant ridgeline is our destination. It doesn’t look like much but the views are amazing.

Northern View From the Ridgeline

Once one reaches the ridgeline there are amazing views in all directions. This view is north, past the ridgeline. These colorful peaks are quite a surprise because they are completely hidden until one is standing on the ridge.

Ridgeline

We’ve been up here when the wind was blowing so hard that we could hardly stand up; and other times when there was not even the slightest breeze. (There were a lot of bees that day.) Today the wind was calm and it was even a little warm. No bees.

Nooney & Wurdeman

This is the view that makes this hike worth the effort. It’s one of the prettiest I’ve ever encountered. I’ve yet to capture an image that does it justice.

Looking south from this, the highest point along the ridge, one can see Wurdeman Lake, Nooney Lake, and Summit Lake. Wurdeman and Nooney, the two huge glacial lakes, are both across the border in the U.S. In years past, we could spot large chunks of ice floating on them. Not this year.

Summit Lake, which is twice as close as the others, is the one we passed earlier on the trail.

Four Miles Back

After taking in the view, we began the four mile hike back to Cameron Lake.

Can Keep Away

What to do the day after an eight mile hike? In our case, spend a can tossin’, rock throwin’, bottle floatin’ afternoon along the lakeshore. Papa T got things started with some can tossing.

Hoping to remain inconspicuous, I initially tried to shoot through the screen door of our camper. Unfortunately, it was vibrating so rapidly in the wind that the images I was getting looked like they’d been shot with a special soft focus portrait lens. I was forced to leave my “blind” and shoot outside. It didn’t matter. The Boy was so engrossed in his game with Papa T that I went completely unnoticed.

Blow Wind, Blow!

The wind was blowing so hard off the lake that an empty Coke can tossed straight up would land ten or more yards away. This delighted The Boy to no end, although it took some time for him to learn to track the can after it left Papa T’s hand. He didn’t quite get why it wasn’t going straight up.

Mr. Coke Can, Meet Waterton Lake

It didn’t take long for The Boy to figure out that the only thing he was going to hit by throwing his can into the wind was himself. He needed to find another way to get the can into the water. This seemed like a good time to redirect his attention to a little rock throwin'.

Walking to Cameron Falls

After several hours at the lakeshore, we decided to walk over to Cameron Falls, a waterfall on the outskirts of Waterton townsite. The falls marks the end of the Carthew-Alderson trail that begins at Cameron Lake.

Lead Me Not Into Temptation

The Boy brought an empty Gatorade bottle with him which meant that The Parents had to be particularly vigilant to insure it wouldn’t end up taking a cruise down the creek. We reminded Lewis of the consequences of such an action but that was no guarantee of compliance. We could see him weighing the pros and cons of each alternative as he looked at his bottle, then the creek, then The Parents.

Red Rock Parkway

When you visit Waterton-Glacier, there are certain things you can pretty much count on. One of them is seeing bears along the Red Rock Parkway. Darla and I figured out that we’d made the drive eight times; seven times we spotted at least one bear.

When the likelihood of spotting a bear is so high, it is easy to become disappointed when you don’t see one, as was the case on this particular evening. We were almost to the end of the road and we had seen nothing. Darla was starting to hear some grumbling from my side of the truck so she turned to me and reminded me that complaining wasn’t going to help…at which point we rounded a curve and spotted this bear just a few feet off the road. Naturally, I credited my grousing for this positive turn of events.

Goat Haunt

We began our fourth day in Waterton with a boat ride down the length of Upper Waterton Lake. The lake is oriented north-to-south, stretching across the U.S.-Canadian border so the Goat Haunt ranger station at the southern end of the lake does double duty as a U.S. Customs station.

Goat Haunt earned its name from the large number of mountain goats that congregate on the mountainside above this section of the lake. One of the options is to hike up the mountainside to an overlook. This was my plan until a park ranger informed us that you won’t see any goats in the summer; they’re all on the other side of the mountain.

A second option is to hike to Kootenai Lakes. For many, this is the best option due to the high likelihood of moose, bear, and beaver sightings. According to one ranger, Kootenai Lakes offers the best moose viewing in the park. Unfortunately, the 5.6 mile roundtrip didn’t work for us.

The Third Option

The third option is the trail to Rainbow Falls. Relatively short and flat, this is the easiest of the three options and the one we ended up going with.

Snack Break

Rainbow Falls was OK; nothing more. It was an excuse for a walk through the woods. It’s one of those falls that seems more like rapids. If you happen to arrive at the right time of day you will see rainbows form in the mist. For our visit there were no rainbows and little mist.

Waiting For Our Ride

We compared notes with the other hikers while we waited for our boat ride back to Waterton. A group that headed up the trail to Goat Haunt Overlook only made it halfway before a huffing, snorting bear forced a retreat. One guy hiked (jogged, really) to Kootenai Lakes. He saw three moose, including a large bull. He was pretty excited. I would’ve been too, although I privately questioned the wisdom of trail running in bear country.

Waterton Pizza

We ate an early dinner at Waterton Pizza. We usually prepared our own meals in the camper but we’d eaten here on a previous trip and remembered it fondly. We decided to treat ourselves – a decision that we would come to regret. Despite being the only ones in the place, it took over an hour to get our pizza, the most expensive bad pizza any of us could remember.

Surrey Ride

For about $25 per hour, one can peddle their way around Waterton on an Italian-made surrey. This proved to be a great way to take in this idyllic little community which, despite its cuteness, has managed to avoid becoming overrun with tourists and traffic.

No Fringe on the Top

Mom volunteered to take a shot of us peddling down Waterton Avenue. This was her first vacation with her fancy new digital camera so it took a few tries to get everything right. By the third pass, Darla and I were having trouble maintaining our composure.

Bear Safari

Since you can never see too many bears, we tried to end each day with a drive along the Red Rock Parkway. Our conversation was predictable:

“There’s one! No, wait. That’s a rock. No…”

“Yeah, it a rock. Keep driving.”

“Over there! Or is that a tree stump? Slow down a little.”

Waterton Lake and the Prince of Wales Hotel

This is my favorite perspective of Waterton Lake and the iconic Prince of Wales hotel. The hotel was built in 1927 on an elevated peninsula that provides gorgeous views in all directions. Waterton townsite sits behind the peninsula out of view.

This image was shot just after sunset on our return from the parkway.

Monarda (Bee Balm)

We took one last drive along the Red Rock Parkway on our final morning in Waterton Lakes National Park. It was the first overcast morning of our trip so I stopped to capture a few flower images in the soft light. (And, yes, we saw another bear!)

The Boy Gets A Mom Ride

After eating breakfast next to the river, we waved goodbye to Waterton Lakes and turned south toward the Many Glacier section of the park. Despite a late start, we held out hope that there might still be a campsite available when we arrived.

Swiftcurrent Lake

The Many Glacier section of Glacier National Park is the starting point for many of its best hikes. It would serve as home base for the second half of our trip.

It was late afternoon when we arrived – too late to get a spot in the always crowded Many Glacier campground. My parents were staying at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn across from the campground so we were allowed to park in their parking lot for the night. This isn’t normally allowed.

Logan Pass

After securing a site at the Many Glacier campground the next morning, we headed off on Glacier’s famous Going-to-the-Sun Road. Going-to-the-Sun Road is one of the most beautiful and dramatic drives anywhere; and Logan Pass is the high point, literally and figuratively.

Grizzly

There is a large grizzly bear that lives in the Logan Pass area. This morning, it was hanging out near the visitor center. It munched away while a throng of visitors gathered along the trail to watch.

Soft Hair

While we were admiring the grizzly, Lewis was admiring his cousin Claire’s hair. The Boy loved touching hair, a habit which Claire tolerated for about two minutes before putting a stop to it.

Hidden Lake Nature Trail

After the grizzly wandered out of sight, we all struck off on the Hidden Lake Nature Trail. This short trail offers visitors the opportunity to experience Logan Pass close up: the dramatic weather; the amazing vistas; all the mountain goats you’d ever want to see; and, last but not least, wildflowers!

Uncle Tim is Off the Trail!

This is the second in a series of three images captured from a vantage point about fifteen feet off the trail. Now it is true that visitors are not “allowed” off the trail. It is in situations such as this where my innate conviction that the rules do not apply to me comes in particularly handy.

This is not to suggest that I am completely without a moral compass. When my nephew, Timmy, tried to follow me, I let him know that it is his responsibility to follow the rules. “Timmy, you’re not supposed to be off the trail. You’ll trample the flowers. Get back.”

As you might imagine, Timmy was a little put off by my admonition. “But you’re off the trail…”

“Yes, I know.”

Timmy did not find this response altogether satisfying and I could hardly blame him. Still, it seemed better than “Do as I say; not as I do,” or the slightly less mature “I know you are, but what am I?”

In the end, Timmy did what any respectful nephew would do in the same situation: He returned to the trail, then tattled on me to my parents. “UNCLE TIM IS OFF THE TRAIL!”

I’m pretty sure that I’m his favorite uncle.

Depth of Field

There was actually a reason I had wandered off trail to get these shots. The large grizzly bear we had been watching earlier had dug a series of holes at this spot. I climbed down into one of these holes to achieve the near-ground level perspective of the flowers seen in this series of images. It seemed like the better alternative to laying down on a bunch of other flowers.

Mountain Goat

Mountain goats are everywhere around the Hidden Lake viewpoint so close encounters are virtually guaranteed. These animals are pretty laid back about human-goat encounters; getting a tight shot isn’t usually a problem.

Hidden Lake

Bear Grass

Bear Grass, a type of lily, is the one flower I’ve always associated with Glacier. It can be found throughout the park. It was especially prodigious this year; we were spotting wide swaths of it everywhere.

We pulled over a short distance from Logan Pass, where Cataract Creek cascades down a mountainside, to get a closer view.

Timmy & Claire Ford Cataract Creek

Mountain Goat on Canyon Wall

Our second morning at Many Glacier began with Dad and I rising early to hike up to Grinnell Glacier. This is a great hike we’d last done in 1992. Everything was going according to plan until my back popped out as I was brushing my teeth…and that was that. Ordinarily, this is a problem I can correct myself – but not this time. I was done with any substantial hiking until I could get to a physical therapist. What a sad sack I am…

Plan B was a hike to Red Rock Falls, a relatively accessible falls that none of us had ever seen. The trail took us past quite a few mountain goats perched on the cliffs high above us.

Red Rock Falls

I must confess that, unless I’m hiking through Yosemite, I question the necessity of seeing every waterfall in a park. They all tend to look the same. This is why, if you’ve followed along on any of my journeys, I often talk about hiking to a waterfall without actually providing (or even taking) a photograph of it.

Having said all this, Red Rock Falls is a pretty falls and well worth the modest effort it takes to get here. The trail leads to the top of the falls and then past it to other destinations.

Snack Time

As is our custom, we stopped at the top of the falls to have a snack. One can see several smaller falls upstream from the main falls.

Roasting Marshmallows

We finished off our day with dinner and a marshmallow roast at our Many Glacier campsite. We really liked this campground and, although the sites varied in size, there weren’t really any bad ones.

Campfires Are For Kids

Much like Christmas, it is the kids that make campfires fun. On this particular evening, Timmy was in charge of randomly flipping burning embers out of the fire pit. Lewis was tasked with tossing foreign objects into the fire that didn’t belong there. Both of them instinctively understood that the adults who kept telling them to stop didn’t really mean it.

Thirsty Boy

“Just let him try it. He won’t like it. It will burn his tongue.” -- Darla, on letting The Boy taste Coca-Cola several months earlier.

I should have known better. It took one sip to turn him into a little Coke fiend – especially when it came to “red Coke”, as Lewis liked to call it. Darla had proffered the same theory in regard to circus peanuts – to which The Boy also took an immediate liking. Give The Boy a can of red Coke and a couple circus peanuts and he would happily sell both of his parents down the river.

Blue Coke?

That being said, as The Boy watched Papa T drink his beer even I gave him no chance of trying it once he smelled it and realized it wasn’t another variation of Coke.

Wrong Again

"Aaaaaaah."

Wild Goose Island in Saint Mary Lake

In light of my inability to stand up straight, we decided that another drive up Going-to-the-Sun Road was a good idea. We could enjoy some of the easier, more accessible sights that we’d passed up on prior visits.

St. Mary Falls

Our first stop was a short hike to St. Mary Falls. Yes, another falls – another pretty good one, actually.

Going-to-the-Sun Road Viewpoint

Just west of Logan Pass is this viewpoint which shows Going-to-the-Sun Road carved into the side of the mountain. The Garden Wall sits above the road, enveloped in clouds.

Sunset at Swiftcurrent Lake

Mom and I spent our last evening in Glacier at Swiftcurrent Lake hoping to catch some color in the clouds as the sun set. No such luck, although it was a beautiful evening nevertheless.

The Last Word

We all met at the campsite to say our goodbyes. Mom, Dad, Timmy, and Claire would shortly be headed east; Darla, Lewis, and I west. It was a sad parting of the ways made more so by the later realization that my wallet was still in their car.

This was actually a minor inconvenience compared to the one my folks were facing: They would be driving an extra 2,000 miles to get Timmy and Claire back to Minnesota. The broken down Dodge Caravan that had prevented my sister and her husband from joining us on our trip continued to prevent them from getting to Montana to retrieve their kids. Despite assurances to the contrary, their nagging feeling that the van still had issues was validated a few months later when it burst into flames as they were driving down the road.

Note to self: next vehicle will not be a Caravan.

In the end, everyone made it home safely with plans to meet up again over spring break.