Last Wednesday, August 11, I dropped Nimmi off in Calgary, and then headed another few hours south to the very southwestern tip of Alberta, to Waterton Lakes National Park. Waterton Lakes is at the southernmost end of the Canadian Rockies, and abuts against Glacier National Park in Montana and the American Rockies. Notably, Waterton and Glacier, although each owned by their respective countries, are co-managed as an "International Peace Park", demonstrating the cooperation, respect, and friendship of the USA and Canada. In fact, you can even hike across the US/Canadian border there.
I arrived at my lodge (Waterton Lakes Resort) around 1:30 in the afternoon, and my room wasn't ready yet. So I stopped at a local cafe for lunch and to call my insurance agent about my fender-bender from that morning. After I finished with that diversion, I went to the visitor's center for the park and then took a hike. After the long hikes with Nimmi, my foot wasn't up for another long one, although I was interested in the International Peace Hike, which starts in Waterton, hikes across the US border, and then ends at a lake in Glacier; you take a boat ride to get back to Waterton at the end. With two border crossings, it takes all day for the 8 mile hike. Unfortunately, it only happens on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and even though I had arrived on Wednesday, the hike had started at 8am, so I'd missed it. I decided, instead, to do a short but classic hike, up Bear's Hump.
Bear's Hump is a short hike, but steep. It's 0.7 miles each way, with 787 feet of elevation gain. And despite my recent education in walking slowly so that I don't have to stop for rest breaks, trust me that I had to stop several times going up the Bear's Hump and catch my breath. But at the top -- what an incredible, spectacular view. The weather was clear that day (thank goodness, after a week of rain in Jasper and Banff), and the view of Waterton Lake was outstanding. I sat at the top and just looked over the peaks and at the lakes for a long time before I came down.
I'd have loved to do another hike that day, but I decided not to push my luck with my foot, so I thought I'd do some short ones instead of one long one. I also wanted to see some of the scenic roads within the park. I started with the first scenic drive, down Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake. The drive was beautiful. It starts out narrow, and then turns into more of a U-shaped glacial valley as you approach Cameron Lake. It's very shady and green, and there are lots and lots of peaks to see during the drive. I also saw lots of deer, especially. I decided, instead of hiking around Cameron Lake, to do a short walk to Akamina Lake, because I heard that moose frequent that lake. I didn't see any moose that day, unfortunately, but I saw lots of deer playing in the lake, and I watched them for a long time.
I slowly took the drive back to town, and then I took another of the scenic drives, on Red Rock Canyon Drive. Again, I thought I'd do a short hike along that way, but found out that there's no parking at the canyon due to construction. So I just did the drive rather than stopping and hiking. And this drive was completely different than Akamina Parkway. Waterton is colloquially known as "where the mountains meet the prairie", and this was obvious comparing this drive to the previous one. Akamina Parkway is located in a valley, with rocky, glacial mountains on either side. But this drive consisted of rolling hillside and low mountains which were green to the peaks, covered in grass and vegetation. It was a light green, too, grassy and fresh-looking, rather than deep, evergreen-green. The grasses were blowing in the breeze, and wildflowers bloomed all the way up the hillsides. I saw deer and black bear on the hillsides, playing and grazing. I was completely overcome by the beauty of it. I even saw a rainbow on my way back to town -- and it hadn't even rained! Maybe it was the fact that I had one entire day with no rain, or maybe it really was the scenery itself, but the variety of scenery that day blew me away.
I did some reading that night, and found out that a unique geologic feature resides in Waterton, the Lewis Overthrust. Basically, it's an area where two land masses collided, and in the process, the mountains were pushed up over the prairie. This feature is what makes such the stark contrasts between the flat prairie, rolling hills, verdant mountains, and then steep, glacial cliffs -- all within such a small area.
The next morning, I left Waterton and crossed the border back into the USA. I was excited at first -- I should have reliable, low-cost cell phone service again! -- until I realized that I had absolutely no service whatsoever within Glacier National Park. But despite that, I had an amazing two days to spend in Glacier, and I looked very forward to the prospect. The road from Waterton to Glacier is known as Chief Mountain International Highway, and the most notable feature on the road is Chief Mountain itself, which the Blackfeet Tribe regards as sacred. It is quite a mountain, flat-topped and completely dominant in the sky, even though it's only 9100 feet or so high, much lower than many other peaks I'd seen in the area.
I'd originally planned to drive the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road that day, but when I got to Glacier and realized where my hotel was, I changed plans and decided to drive to Many Glacier that day, instead. It's a shorter road, and would give me more time for a hike. Glacier has tons and tons of hiking trails -- it's rather overwhelming, actually -- but I finally decided to hike to Grinnell Lake, a glacial lake below a glacier of the same name. I'd have loved to hike to the glacier itself, but that would be a 10 mile hike, and just going to the lake would be 7, which I knew would be hard enough on my foot.
The hike to Grinnell Lake was amazing. First of all, it was definitely in grizzly bear country, with warning signs every so often, and so I was on red-alert throughout the hike. I even talked aloud to an imaginary "Mr. Bear"; I wished him a nice day, and told him to stay asleep for a few more hours. I also told him not to come looking for me, that neither of us really wanted to see each other up close that day. I felt a little crazy, but decided that being mistaken for a schizophrenic was better to being mauled by an accidental grizzly bear.
Secondly, the hike took me through lots of different terrain, from lake shoreline, up ridges of moraine, through subalpine forest, over marshes, through meadows, and finally to the lake. And then, of course, was the lake itself: impossibly turquoise and opaque, typical of a glacial lake. There was the glacier above it, and a waterfall which ran down to the lake. Gorgeous. It started to rain on that hike, but it wasn't too bad, and so I spent some time at the lake before I started the hike back. Typical of me after a long hike, I could hardly walk that night. But it was definitely worth it -- that was one of the best hikes I've ever done.
The next day, I decided to drive Going-To-The-Sun Road, which is the classic drive through Glacier National Park. I started at the park entrance, then took the 50-mile-long road westward all the way to the Apgar (west) entrance, and then drove it all the way back. I had hoped to hike again that day, but even if I had stubbornly not allowed my heel to stop me, the torrential rain would have. Yes, it poured the entire day. Poured. My jeep was completely covered in mud by the time I got back to the hotel that night. I didn't mind the rain so much, except that I'm afraid the scenery which caused the road to be named "going to the sun" probably suffered in the rain and thick, stormy clouds. I really didn't even take many pictures, because it was really hard to see and the light was poor.
What I do recall of that day were the many glacier features which I got to see: hanging valleys, horned mountains, aretes, cirques, and of course, the cloudy neon waters of the glacial lakes. I also learned that, due to the warming of the climate, all of the glaciers at Glacier National Park will be GONE by the year 2030. Every single one. The park rangers, and all of the reading material for the park, mentions that it believes global warming is likely the cause, although they do mention that warming cycles occur between ice ages, and so such a cycle may be the cause, as well.
I also learned a little bit more about the interesting nature of that particular area of land. As I mentioned before, Waterton demonstrates a collision of sorts between mountain and prairie. But all told, the Waterton-Glacier area contains animals, plants, and geologic features from the Pacific coast, high plains, and the northern and southern Rocky Mountains, which makes the park incredibly varied, elevation factor notwithstanding. It literally is a riot of vegetation and animals.
Even with the pouring rain, I was as astonished by this park as I was by Big Bend. Both parks have completely unexpected landscapes, and both parks caught me by surprise. If this trip serves, to some degree, as a "scouting" expedition for places that I'd like to visit again someday, then Waterton-Glacier is certainly on that very short list.
No comments:
Post a Comment