Bighorn Mountain Sheep in the middle of Waterton Village

We had been to a travel fair earlier in the year where we found out that there is Waterton Park near the Southern Border of Alberta. It is connected with the Waterton Glacier’s Park that is on the other side of the border – in the US. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and also a Biosphere reserve. Since it is a good 3 hours drive from Calgary, we decided to go there on our long weekend in May. May 20th is Victoria Day here.

We had booked a hotel that we’d found in a brochure and it happened to be right in the centre of Waterton village. As soon as we arrived we saw how close to nature we are – there was a flock of Bighorn Mountain Sheep on their way through the village. They used the main roads as it was appropriate and everybody else waited until they had finished their little search for next grazing plot.

The hiking trails started from all around the village. There were trails for all difficulties – from easy walks to uphill trekking for days. For the Saturday afternoon when we arrived we decided to take a Lower Bertha Falls trail that took us to a nice waterfall. Having made it there, we decided that we have enough strength in us to continue upward and started up the mountain that was right next to Bertha lake. That was already more challenging – the trail went only upwards and there were heaps of snow on the way. We decided to stop when I was quite tired already and we had been hiking for an hour and a half. My husband had made nice sandwiches for us and some tea, so we sat down and indulged in Gourmet sandwiches. Seriously – mine had turkey breast, goat cheese brie and mango chutney on a soft rye bread – if that’s not gourmet, then what is!

Curious mixture of green trees and snow on the mountain next to Bertha’s Lake

We had booked our dinner at Vimy’s Grill and Lounge at 7pm, but since we were quite hungry by 6, we went and had some local cider at the pub – that was truly a good cider – made from Okanagan apples and not too sweet, not malty, just perfect. Dinner itself wasn’t the best, but I enjoyed the beef vegetable soup and the sweet potato fries, my husband enjoyed the beef stew. But my elk burger was a bit dry and very small, so I did not get my wow experience from that.

Sunday started with breakfast at a local cafe – Pearl’s. Staff was very friendly and helpful, one chap said that he has been coming from Edmonton to Waterton for summers since he was a kid, because his parents have farm nearby and he works at the local cafe. We purchased also our lunch to go from there and headed on to our next hike.

Red mountain, green leaves and yellow wildflowers

The trail we headed to was to Lower Rowe Lake and was famous for wildflowers. And we saw lots of those indeed! The mountain had a reddish colour and the whole a trail was such a beautiful site with its red mountain, green pine and fur trees and multiple wildflowers. It was going up to an elevation of 500 m, so it was not easy necessarily. Once again we were stopped by snow – the higher we got the more there was and it was slushy and we decided that we do not want to be splashing around in wet snow and turned back down. We were caught up by 3 people coming down from the mountain wet to their waist and they said that they had made it all the way to the lake, but it had been mainly snow on the trail onwards and they had fallen through a few times.

Deer grazing in the middle of the village

We drove on to Cameron lake next, there were lots of cars parked there and many families had come sightseeing. The trail was all covered in snow still. Cameron lake is right next to the US border and the mountain opposite the parking lot is already in the US.

Then we had a good hard look at the trails we might take that would not be covered with snow any more. Our best option was to take a trail in the Prairies that started from the Red Rock Canyon and crossed the Buffalo Paddock. The weather was overcast but there was no rain or wind to speak of – ideal for hiking. The trail was flat mostly with some low hills, but there were mountains to the left of us and eventually we made it to the foot of one of them – Dungarvin 2566m. We started going uphill and ended up going through forests of small twisted trees. My husband called them angry trees – the trees were snarly and small, some of them dried and the rest had small green leaves that trembled with the slightest wind. I just thought that the trees must have gone through a lot – no rain, buckets of rain, gale strength winds, extreme cold etc, so no wonder they were not growing straight up and smiling as the birches back home. We had walked on that path for an hour and a half when we decided that we will most likely make it to the top and back that day and started heading back. Altogether on Sunday we had hiked for almost 4 hours and burnt almost 2000 calories according to my husbands watch. We felt like we deserve a beer or cider by then. 🙂

Path through ‘angry’ trees

First, the great local cider at the Vimy’s, then on to the Trapper’s Mountain Grill for more beer and dinner. Steak seemed like a good option from the grill, but was overdone. I should have ordered it rare instead of medium-rare. But we were so hungry it did not matter that much.

When we were heading back from dinner and sat by the Waterton lake that stretches through the centre of the village, it started raining. We had been very lucky to have such a nice weather for hiking!