nature, Photography

Waterton National Park

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Waterton National Park is in the southwest corner of Alberta between the Rocky Mountains and the prairies. Named after conservationist Charles Waterton, it borders Glacier National Park in the United States and is part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The blue dot marks the park; the grey line just to the south of it delineates the Canada-U.S. border.

Often overshadowed by its more famous sibling parks Banff and Jasper, it contains 505 square kilometres (195 sq. miles) of wilderness and mountains with stunning scenery and fantastic hiking trails among its many mountain lakes.

Upper Waterton Lake

The lakes frequently display the intense blue, green or greenish-blue colours of glacial run-off that is often found in the Rocky Mountains.

We had beautiful weather for our first day of hikes and although it was quite windy at times we didn’t mind.

Nevertheless we’re not used to hiking at 1800 metres (6000 ft) or pushing in windy conditions and by mid-afternoon we were ready to return to our hotel to recuperate before dinner!

Happy Tuesday.

35 thoughts on “Waterton National Park”

  3. We love Waterton, but have not been for some 25 years. Looks like you had gorgeous weather on the day Lynette. As to windy, Waterton always seems to be windy. Looking forward to more posts on the park. Happy Tuesday. Allan

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    1. We had beautiful weather, Allan. I realised that I hadn’t visited in about 35 years. We’re very glad we came back. Yes, always (or mostly, anyway) quite windy. Upper Waterton with the mountains on both sides acts like wind tunnel. Once we tried other parts of the park it was much less windy and we were better able to handle to altitude change without pushing against the wind, too! Cheers.

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  4. I love Waterton, and love that it is still overshadowed by the others. We’ve recognized it on some TV shows and movies lately set in the US or an unknown mountain park. I hope they don’t make it famous. Maggie

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    1. I agree, Maggie. It’s tucked away like a little jewel and it’s best if it doesn’t become famous. I hadn’t known it well enough (the last time I visited was 35 years ago) to have recognised it in shows or movies but now we might.

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    1. Thank you very much. 😊 Many Americans visit both Glacier and Waterton as they each are national parks separated by the border. It used to be very easy to cross back and forth on the trails (years ago in the 80s) but not any more, I understand. Still, the official border crossing isn’t far. They are both gorgeous parks and well worth a visit. Cheers.

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  7. one place I’ve never been, but wanted to….but kids always wanted to go west, Jasper maybe..but they demand shopping and visiting relatives at the west coast….so, someday

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  8. Dear Lynette
    We were there many years ago when living in Canada. It was windy, but not more windy than we would expect at this altitude. It was beautiful and empty. We loved it.
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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    1. Hi Fab Four,
      The windy conditions are pretty normal here given the geographical conditions and the way the wind is funnelled through the mountains. It’s like a venturi tube! Yes, it’s relatively empty but we were surprised at how busy it was compared to how we remembered it. Cheers.

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  10. Wow that is beautiful! I’ve been there or any of the other national parks around there. I’ve only been to eastern Canada (Toronto etc). I would like to visit to see it myself one day.

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    1. I hope you get the opportunity some time, Thomas. It’s well worth the effort to see Glacier (in the U.S. across the border from Waterton), Waterton and then Banff and Jasper National Parks further to the north. Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

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  11. Stunning captures of Waterton. We visited briefly along the way to Glacier National Park in Montana nearly a decade ago. We’ve been talking about returning at some point. Glad to hear you had beautiful weather so far.

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    1. Thank you very much, Linda. Waterton is well worth a 2-3 day visit with lots of good trails of varying difficulty. I hope you get the opportunity for a good visit sometime. There was a forest fire eight years ago and it’s interesting to see how it’s now recovering. Cheers.

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